As the clock ticks for the jumpstart of the 2023 Artmiabo International Art Festival (AMIAF) there are potpourri of Afrobeats and art legends penciled down for cameo and podium appearances at the themed feast ‘artofafrobeats’.
The five-day art and music fiesta is due in Lagos from Thursday, April 27 – Monday May 01 at the highbrow Ebonylife Place Victoria Island, Lagos State, Nigeria.
Leading the packs is Lemi Ghariokwu, Observer Music Magazine (Guardian, UK) called him “King of Covers” in 2004- is one of the honorable awardees at AMIAF 2023. He is the undisputed founding father of “artofafrobeats”.
More than 2,000 album covers have been designed by Lemi in the last 48 years including covers for Bob Marley, Falz, E. T. Mensah, Osita Osadebe, Mandators, Orits Williki, Gilles Peterson, Sonny Okosuns, Oliver De Coque, Miriam Makeba, Lucky Dube, Antibalas, Akoya Afrobeat, Dele Sosimi, Tony Tetuila, Eedris Abdulkareem, 2face Idibia, Falz, Yankari Afrobeat Collective, among others.
Ghariokwu is surely one of Africa’s best-kept secrets. He is most renowned for providing 26 original cover images for the recordings of Nigerian musician Fela Kuti between 1974 and 1993. World-famous for his captivating and intricate record sleeves, never failing to give life to lyrics through his pictorial images. His painting ‘Anoda Sistem’, created in 2002, is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA) with a dual lifetime membership of the museum.
Some of his album covers of Fela Anikulapo Kuti would be on display at Artmiabo International Art Festival themed “artofafrobeats” starting Thursday, April 27 to Monday, May 01, 2023 at the Ebonylife Place Victoria Island, Lagos State, Nigeria.
Jacob Akinyemi-Johnson is one of Africa’s most influential and quintessential broadcasters. His career which has spanned four decades has led to him being referred to as ‘The doyen of FM broadcasting in Nigeria’. His career kicked off with a memorable stint at NBC’2 AM/ FM Stereo in Lagos, which later became Radio Nigeria 2, the ‘Sunshine Station’, the nation’s first FM Radio. He is known in the entertainment industry as JAJ ‘Da Mecca Don. Akinyemi-Johnson is the producer and presenter of the famous ‘Top 7 Jams at 7’ the longest- running chart show in Africa 25 years and counting and for the production of the Silverbird Man of The Year and other Silverbird awards for sixteen years going on seventeen.
His unique presentation style made him popular and the favourite of radio listeners rapidly. He has won practically every award FM Radio broadcasting has to offer for excellence in contemporary broadcasting, including the 1983 Radio Personality of the Year and in the same year The Evening Times Presenter of the Year, followed by FAME and AMEN Awards, NET Honours and several others. In 1997, he joined the Silverbird Group to set up Rhythm 93.7 Lagos with the ‘More Music Less Talk’ ideology; this was followed by Rhythm 94.7 in Abuja in 2001 and Rhythm 93.7 in Port Harcourt in 2002. In 2004 he has since then set Rhythm FM in Jos, Benin, Yenagoa and Awka. He was promoted to the position of General Manager Creative Development of Silverbird Communications and the Vice Chairman of the Editorial Board and served in that capacity until February 2020, when he was appointed Chief Creative Officer and Chairman of the Editorial Board. Akinyemi-Johnson has spent decades in the broadcasting industry, doing what he knows best. The fans and colleagues alike have lauded his longevity and creative prowess. They say “He deserves to be eulogised for introducing the term ‘OAP’ into the Nigerian broadcast firmament. It was JAJ that first employed the moniker back in ‘97,” Femi Sowoolu, a media consultant, tweeted in 2020.
In the course of his career, JAJ has supported various Artists on Radio and Television to get their songs to number 1 on national and international charts and created various shows for Radio and Television, JAJ is one of the most prominent voices who laid the groundwork for a lot of the music genres Nigerians enjoy today especially with Hip Hop, Rap, pop music, Afrobeat, and Afrobeats.
He is the Content editor and producer of Ben Murray-Bruce’s “Common Sense Series”, producer of many documentaries, features, and various brand hypes, for the likes of the EFCC, MTN, GLO, Airtel, Guinness, British Airways, Luftansa Airways, and other multinational organisations.
Bolaji Alonge is an artist, photographer, journalist and actor from Lagos, Nigeria with more than two decades of experience in documenting history. Also known as Eyes of a Lagos Boy, he is a permanent feature in the Lagos art scene. Alonge’s visual language speaks of wonders of nature and human exchange, as it searches for historical continuity in today’s world.
Alonge is inspired by Afrobeats and its impact on the world, sending a positive message from Africa that is heard by one and all. His work reflects his own experience of Afrobeats. He will present his own work and mixed art in collaboration with Jason Ogbazi, a talented Nigerian artist.
Born Christopher Chichebem Okoro to Igbo parents both of Abia state origin. Okoro is a classical trained keyboardist who came to Lagos in the early 90s from Warri, Delta state Nigeria, where his father worked and lived. Okoro was one of most sought after stage keyboardists in the 90s. Bands like the Goldtrain Orchestra, the dynamic band behind the stage success of Lady of songs, late Christy Essien Igbokwe, Late Ras Kimono’s Massive Dread band, Elcados 90 and performing on stage with artists like Daniel Wilson, Alex O, late Feladey and several others. While playing on stage with these artists he was also involved in some of their studio recordings and contributing in the area of song arrangement, hook lines and music score. By the late 90s he concentrated more on studio production and sound engineering where he cut a niche for himself as one of the best producer/mix engineer of that era, with several awards to show for his numerous hits.
Blending African rhythm into hip hop and rap beats was one area that he pioneered with a few other producers of the time which later gave birth to what today is known globally as Afrobeats. Several of his hit productions include works with Daniel Wilson, Felix Duke+2face+Sonny Neji, The Remedies, Maintain, X Project, Idris Abdulkareem (Nigeria Jagajaga) and so many others.
Ganiyat Abdulazeez is a visual artist based in Lagos, Nigeria. She graduated with a National Diploma from the prestigious Yaba College of Technology in 2017 and went on to earn a Higher National Diploma in the same school in 2021.
Abdulazeez explores a diversity of media spanning pastels, graphite, charcoal, watercolours, acrylics, and oils (being her most favored). In her recent works, she incorporates a distinctive floral motif – believed to have a deep connection with her childhood experiences in her portraits.
This recurring phenomenon in her work is called jatropha multifida (coral plant). The plants are known to have many healing properties, some of which she had benefited from while growing up.
Abdulazeez believes that every part of the body needs healing, being poor or rich, white skin or black skin, every mankind yearns for healing, even the animals, in a way or another. She affirms that God created all plants for human and animal benefit. Also concealed in them are diverse healing properties right before the existence of drugs and injections.
Ganiyat Abdulazeez is a visual artist based in Lagos, Nigeria. She graduated with a National Diploma from the prestigious Yaba College of Technology in 2017 and went on to earn a Higher National Diploma in the same school in 2021.
Abdulazeez’s works will be displayed as part of the 2023 Artmiabo International Art Festival themed “artofafrobeats”.
King-Keazor is a music journalist, film producer, photographer, and poet. She is the first Nigerian female entertainment writer.
King-Keazor has been featured in several music documentaries as a subject expert including Showmax’s original series ‘The Journey of the beats’ and; producer of the critically acclaimed ‘Lagos: The Birth of a City of Style’.
She is also an accomplished photo artist whose works have been exhibited internationally and who was featured at the first ArtMiabo Festival in 2022.
A landmark was her iconic three-day interview with the legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, which was one of his most indepth interviews. She also complemented this with an equally indepth interview of his first wife, Remi Ransome-Kuti.
