Ike' Ude' Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Iké Udé, born 1964 in Makurdi, Nigeria, is a Nigerian-American photographer, performance artist, author and publisher based in New York. He began his artistic career in the late 1980s with abstract painting and drawing. Read the full biography

Iké Udé, born 1964 in Makurdi, Nigeria, is a Nigerian-American photographer, performance artist, author and publisher based in New York. He began his artistic career in the late 1980s with abstract painting and drawing. Since the 1990s, photography has become his main means of expression. Udé holds dual citizenship of the United States and Nigeria. Although his paintings and drawings are less well known than his photography, art critics and historians have appreciated his early works. In 1994, Udé inaugurated his "Cover Girls" series, which secured him a prominent place in the contemporary scene. Each photograph in this series imitates the cover of a well-known fashion or lifestyle magazine, in which the artist himself is portrayed as a model. The photographs were intentionally stylized and positioned, then photographed and paired with typefaces matching those of the magazine in question. At first glance, each image appears to be a real magazine cover. Udé used the magazine cover as a stage space to criticize the fetishism towards the white upper-class model and the effects of pop culture on contemporary consumer society.