Barry Nzennaya

Barry Ikechukwu Nzennaya was born in Lagos in 1983. He graduated from federal polytechnic Oko in Anambra State where he studied Fine and Applied Arts as best painting student with distinction in 2010 and worked as an established studio artist in Lagos since 2011. 

Contrary to many African painters, Nzennaya’s work carries little narrative but is a pure celebration of beauty of form, an escape of the daily human mess. Nzennaya is fascinated by the use of shapes and how they interact in creating forms and paints in a distinct cubistic style, sometimes purely abstract, but often with a recognizable figurative element and a lot of movement. His work has been influenced by his mentor, one of the most prolific Northern Nigerian painters Abdulsalam Abdulkareem famous for his horse paintings. Other main influences stem from Yusuf Grillo, Sam Ebohon, and the great European masters such as Pablo Picasso, George Braque, Paul Cezanne and Vincent Van Gogh.