Wilfred Ukpong

Wilfred Ukpong is a French-Nigerian interdisciplinary artist and researcher whose distinctive socially engaged practice utilizes several interwoven mediums, including photography, film, sculpture, performance, architecture, and creative workshops, to tackle pertinent social issues with community participation and intervention. His work frequently engages with the social consequences of environmental issues in the Niger Delta as a result of its petroleum industry.

Life and work
Wilfred Ukpong was born in southern Nigeria. He now lives and works between Oxford (UK), Clermont-Ferrand (France), and Eket (Nigeria). His work uses aspects of Afrofuturism and mysticism in his work to confront the social consequences of environmental issues in the Niger Delta as a result of its petroleum industry. He Ukpong received his BA/MA in Fine Arts from Ecole Supérieure d'Art Lorient, France, and his PhD from Oxford Brookes University, UK. He is the founder and director of Blazing Century Studios which is based between Nigeria, France and the United States.

Ukpong's largest project to date is Blazing Century-1. He says: "Spanning between 2011 and 2017, Blazing Century-1 is the first installment in a 10-part multi-faceted body of work. Each part is set within a geographical location often embroiled in social and environmental devastation and is developed on several platforms," including sculpture, photography, sound, performance, film, music, workshops, and talks."

Since 2020, Ukpong’s art films and photographic installations have been exhibited at Alliance Française/Mike Adenuga Centre (Nigeria), FotoFest, Houston (USA), Institut Français du Nigeria Abuja (Nigeria), MARKK Museum Hamburg (Germany), Pipe Factory Glasgow (UK), Royal Society of Arts, London (UK), Welt Museum Vienna (Austria) amongst others.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

 * Wilfred Ukpong: Niger-Delta / Future-Cosmos, Autograph ABP, London, 16 February – 1 June 2024. Curated by Mark Sealy
 * Blazing Century 1, French Institute in Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria, 2022
 * Future – World – EXV, at Public Ecology Film Festival, Film Screening and Symposium at the Association for Visual Arts in Cape Town, 2022
 * Composing A Cause: A Meditative Sonic Visual Experience curated Film Screening, Performance and Conversation by Wilfred Ukpong, Professor Ray Lee and Hugo Tromp at Autograph-ABP London, 2021
 * Future – World – EXV, Royal Society of Art London, Film Screening and Conversation
 * Future – World – EXV: PRELUDE 2, film Screening, and Conversation at the ESSAY FILM FESTIVAL LONDON, 2021
 * BC-1: Niger-Delta/Future-Cosmos, Alliance Francaise de Lagos/Mike Adenuga Centre Lagos, 2021

Selected Group Exhibitions

 * Africa Rising: 21st-Century African Photography, Fitchburg Art Museum, Massachusetts, 2024
 * Science Fiction(s) - If there was a tomorrow, Welt Museum Wien (World Museum Vienna), 2023
 * Wasser Botschaften/Water Massages, Museum am Rothenbaum–World Cultures and Arts (MARKK), 2023
 * The Colour of the Climate Crisis, Pipe Factory, Glasgow, Scotland, 31 October – 2 November 2021. Organised by Do The Green Thing.
 * African Cosmologies — Photography, Time and the Other, FotoFest Biennial 2020, Houston, USA. Curated by Mark Sealy. Postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 * Diana Ejaita and Wilfred Ukpong Exhibition at Omenka Gallery Lagos, 2019

Publications with contributions by Ukpong

 * African Cosmologies: Photography, Time and the Other. Schilt, 2020. Co-edited Mark Sealy and Steven Evans. Exhibition catalogue. ISBN 978-9053309322.

Filmography

 * Future – World – EXV (2019) – directed by Ukpong

Awards
In 2010, Ukpong's long-term project Blazing Century 1 received a special grant from the Prince Claus Fund Amsterdam. His film Future World (2017) won the Golden City Gates Excellence Award at ITB Berlin in 2018 and was presented at the Nigerian Senate to encourage environmental change in the Niger Delta. In 2024, Ukpong was shortlisted for the inaugural Saltzman Prize from Lisa Saltzman.

Education

 * PhD, Fine/Studio Arts, Oxford Brookes University, UK
 * MFA, Fine/Studio Arts, Ecole Supérieure d'Art Lorient, France
 * BA, Fine/Studio Arts, Ecole Supérieure d'Art Lorient, France