©Victor Ekpuk
Information
- Title
- Still I Rise
- Object Number
- AB-2023-35
- Maker
- Victor Ekpuk
- Medium
- Serigraph
- Dates
- ca. 2020
- Dimensions
- 76.5 × 56.7 cm (30 1/8 × 22 5/16 in.) frame: 91.4 × 72.4 cm (36 × 28 1/2 in.)
- Credit Line
- Collection of the artist
- The Nigerian American artist Victor Ekpuk (b. 1964) is internationally renowned for his highly expressive multimedia works of art inspired by Nsibidi, an ancient system of communication from southern Nigeria and Cameroon that features a rich ideographic script. Victor Ekpuk: Lineage and Language explores various themes that have unfolded in Ekpuk’s work over the last three decades. Using Nsibidi as well as characters borrowed from other cultures and his own vibrant systems of expression, Ekpuk celebrates the syncretism of our multicultural societies. In some instances, the artist’s drawings eloquently articulate his elaborate visual language to comment on political oppression, social issues, and police brutality. The reduced palette also gestures toward pictures that Ekpuk executed in his first occupation as a newspaper illustrator. Additionally, Lineage and Language presents the artist’s bold and dramatic series of heads, which serve as vessels for personal memory and knowledge—the beloved immaterial archives that migrants carry with them—and as living palimpsests in which cultural traditions and new life experiences overlap.
Feedback
The Museum regularly researches its objects and their collecting histories, updating its records to reflect new information. We also strive to catalogue works of art using language that is consistent with how people, subjects, artists, and cultures describe themselves. As this effort is ongoing, the Museum’s records may be incomplete or contain terms that are no longer acceptable. We welcome your feedback, questions, and additional information that you feel may be useful to us. Email us at collectionsinfo@princeton.edu.
Want to use an image from the Museum's collections? Review our image use and access policies.