Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede

Emmanuel Taiwo was born in Ayegbaju Ekiti, a Yoruba-speaking region of Nigeria.

He undertook an apprenticeship with sculptor Pa Akerejola in Ekiti before going on to the Yaba School of Technology in Lagos, where he studied with Edo sculptor Osagie Osifo.[2]

In 1963 he travelled to the UK, where he attended Willesden College of Technology and Hammersmith College of Arts,[1] studying the decorative arts, interior design, sculpture and bronze casting.

His first exhibition took place in 1968 at the Woodstock Gallery, London.[3] In 1970, he set up a studio and foundry at Riverside, London.[4] During the following decade Jegede's work featured on the covers of books such as Buchi Emecheta's novels The Bride Price (1976) and The Slave Girl (1977), published by Allison & Busby.

In 1977, he was among the Black artists and photographers whose work represented the UK at the Second World Festival of Black Arts and African Culture (Festac '77) in Lagos, Nigeria (the others being Winston Branch, Ronald Moody, Mercian Carrena, Armet Francis, Uzo Egonu, Neil Kenlock, Donald Locke, Cyprian Mandala, Ossie Murray, Sue Smock, Lance Watson and Aubrey Williams).[5][6]

Also in the 1970s, Jegede was artist-in-residence at the Keskidee Centre (the UK's first arts centre for the Black community),[7][8][9] where he was exposed to resident and visiting artists who worked in a multi-disciplinary mode, including Bob Marley, Walter Rodney, Edward Brathwaite, Angela Davis and Linton Kwesi Johnson. In 1978 Jegede led to the founding of an initiative called the Rainbow Art Group (members included Indira Ariyanayagam, Uzo Egonu, Lancelot Ribeiro, Errol Lloyd, Yeshwant Mali, Gordon V. de La Mothe, Durlabh Singh, Suresh Vedak, Ibrahim Wagh, and Mohammad Zakir, as well as Jegede)[10] that mounted its first exhibition the following year — Paintings and Sculptures at Action Space, London.[11]

Among other exhibitions that included Jegede's work were Afro-Caribbean Art (27 April–25 May 1978 at the Artists Market, London), organised by Drum Arts Centre,[12][13] and Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain 1966 - 1996, curated by the Caribbean Cultural Center, New York City, in 1997–98.[14] More recently, Jegede's work featured in the 2015 exhibition No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990 at the Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London,[15] which is inspired by the papers held at London Metropolitan Archives of Jessica Huntley and Eric Huntley and the publishing company they founded, Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications.

Emmanuel featured in his son Tunde Jegede's theatrical project The Griot's Tale, which was showcased in 2013 at Yinka Shonibare's studio and subsequently performed at the Africa Centre, London.[16][17]