Mufu Onifade

Born October 5, 1966, Mufu Onifade attended The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Nigeria (1986 – 1988) to obtain his National Diploma in General Arts. He won the Best Student Prize. In 1992, he became the foremost Nigerian to master and practise Painting on animal skin after going through a professional training under the legendary Lemma Guya of Ethiopia at the African Art Museum and Training Institute, Debre-Zeit, Ethiopia. He obtained B.A. (Hons.), Fine Arts from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife where he recorded the overall best results in the Department of Fine Arts in 1997. He also holds Master of Art (Art History) from the same institution.

Mufu has developed an authentic African Painting technique now popularly known as Araism. The experiments with which he achieved this feat lasted seven years (1989 to 1996). He later launched the technique with a solo exhibition of 32 paintings at the Goethe-Institut (German Cultural Centre), Lagos in 1998. His second solo show was held at the French Cultural Centre, Ikoyi, Lagos in 2005. He has also taken part in one joint show and participated in over 40 group exhibitions including the first African Regional Summit and Exhibition on Visual Arts (ARESUVA 2008) and International Art Expo Las Vegas (2008). His works have been ceremoniously shown in Ethiopia, Austria, United Kingdom, Belgium, United States etc

Mufu is one of the sixteen artists selected from 7 countries (Ghana, UK, US, Trinidad, Cuba, Brazil and Nigeria) and commissioned to feature at an international exhibition titled 16 Pieces. It was packaged by Ifa-Yoruba Contemporary Arts Trust (I-YCAT), London and sponsored by the London Arts Board in 2000. He was curator/artist-in-residence for Ajibulu-Moniya Gallery, Lagos between 1997 and 2002. He has also contributed critical reviews to journals, newspapers and exhibition catalogues since 1999. He was between 2000 and 2002 contributing editor for Nigerian Videos Magazine, published in the UK. For the past one year he has maintained a twice-a-week critical arts column in The Guardian newspaper. It is called ARTSSESSMENT.

In 2006, Mufu founded Araism Movement as a platform to present young artists to the public on a yearly basis. His membership includes: