Overview
Nike Davies-Okundaye is a textile artist and gallery owner known for adire and batik work and for training thousands of artists. She is Yoruba, born at Ogidi-Ijumu in what is now Kogi State.
Biography
She learned weaving, indigo dyeing and adire from her great-grandmother and other women in her family, in a town where cloth production was a household craft. She began working professionally in Oshogbo, in the circle of artists and workshops active there, and developed a body of work in adire eleko, batik and painting drawing on Yoruba motif and proverb.
She founded art centres at Oshogbo, Ogidi-Ijumu and Abuja that offer free training in textile dyeing, weaving, embroidery and painting, with an emphasis on women and young people without formal schooling. The Nike Art Gallery in Lekki, Lagos, which she owns, is one of the largest privately held collections of Nigerian art open to the public. She has exhibited and taught in Europe, the United States and Asia, and has been recognised for her part in keeping indigo dyeing techniques in practice.
Notable achievements
- Works in adire eleko, batik and painting drawn from Yoruba textile tradition
- Founded free art training centres at Oshogbo, Ogidi-Ijumu and Abuja
- Owns the Nike Art Gallery in Lekki, Lagos, one of Nigeria's largest private galleries open to the public
- Has exhibited and taught internationally over several decades
Legacy
Her training centres have put a large number of working artists and dyers into practice, and her galleries have given Nigerian textile art a permanent commercial and public platform.