Obiora Udechukwu was born June 4, 1946, in Onitsha in 1946 to parents from Agulu in Anambra State, southeastern region of Nigeria.
He received his early education in an Anglophone colonial system, including art training in both primary and secondary school.
He is recognized as a leading member of the Nsukka School, originally led by Uche Okeke who served as head of the art program until 1985.
He served on the editorial board of Okike: African Journal of New Writing established in Nsukka by the novelist Chinua Achebe.
During his tenure, his students included Tayo Adenaike, Olu Oguibe, Chika Okeke-Agulu, Marcia Kure, and Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie.
In the mid 1970s, Udechukwu began what was to be more than a decade-long process of studying uli designs and experimenting in the method of Natural Synthesis, which had been defined by Uche Okeke at beginning of the previous decade.
[2] In this search for a new post-independence aesthetic, Okeke sought to translate uli - a mural and body decoration art of the Igbo - into a contemporary artistic idiom.
A system of motifs associated with male secret societies called Ekpe, which survive to this day, nsibidi can be used to send messages.
During his time in Nsukka, he depicted these experiences in his art, for instance showing the Igbo people in scenes of distress, or in conditions of death, despair, and fear.
Those towards the background are shrouded in a darker shade of blue, barely visible, as they fade into a dark silhouette.
The use of primary colors (mostly red, blues, yellows, and at times oranges) is common in Udechukwu's work, and is evident in many different examples, such as Tycoons and Stevedores (1980), Refugees (1977), The Moon Has Ascended Between Us (1976), Musician (1975-76),[7] and more.
Overall, these early works capture the somber, yet intense emotions in the moments of great tragedy experienced by the Igbo ethnic group during this time, as well as Udechukwu himself, with himself fleeing one violent crisis, only to find himself caught within another one.
Together they studied uli, a southeast Nigerian tradition involving female body and wall painting.
Uli emphasized forms obtained from nature created by linear patterns, curves and dynamic linework.
Udechukwu, along with Okeke and others, began working on a new form of contemporary art that revived the style not just for use in cultural traditions, but as a practice that informed creative individual expression.
Other notable works included No Water (1980), Song of Sorrow (1989), and Tycoon and Stevedores (1979), an earlier version of the oil painting of the same name that was created a year later.
Nsibidi is another form of indigenous pictographic motif, which is used to represent or express characteristics of the human relationships, such as love, marriage, and divorce.
[10] Examples of Nsibidi in Udechukwu's work can be found in People of the Night (1985) and Ndidi: The Patient Person (1985).
"The Nsukka School: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture, Ceramics," 1979 1980: "Five Themes: Fifty-Five Works," 1980.
"People and Streets: Prints and Drawings," 1982 1984: Consultant, "Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos" exhibition, Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, USA, 1984.
"Original Prints from the Third Nsukka Workshop, 1987," 1987; Franco-German Auditorium,1987., 1988: "AKA '88,"1988; Institute of African Studies, 1988; National Gallery of Crafts & Design,1988.
1990: "Uli: Traditional Wall Painting and Modern Art from Nigeria," 1989; Continuing Education Centre, 1990.