Background
Chris Ofili was born on October 10, 1968 in Manchester, United Kingdom. He is a son of May Ofili and Michael Ofili. When Chris was eleven years old, his father left the family and settled down in Nigeria.
2017
Chris Ofili with his Commander's Order of the of the British Empire. Photo by John Stillwell.
In his early years, Chris studied at St. Pius X High School for Boys.
Lower Park Rd, Manchester M14 5RB, United Kingdom
Chris Ofili attended Xaverian College in Victoria Park, Manchester, United Kingdom.
Beaufort Rd, Gtr, Ashton-under-Lyne OL6 6NX, United Kingdom
During the period from 1987 to 1988, Ofili studied at Tameside College.
16 John Islip St, Westminster, London SW1P 4JU, United Kingdom
In 1988, he enrolled at Chelsea School of Art (present-day Chelsea College of Arts), graduating in 1991 with Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
Kensington Gore, Kensington, London SW7 2EU, United Kingdom
Between 1991–1993, Ofili attended Royal College of Art in London, where he attained Master of Fine Arts degree.
The Commander's insignia of the Order of the British Empire which Chris Ofili received in 2017.
272 High Holborn, London WC1V 7EY, United Kingdom
In 2004, Chris was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of the Arts in London.
53 Bankside, London SE1 9TG, United Kingdom
Since 2000 to 2005, Ofili held the post of a trustee and council member of the Tate Gallery, London.
Chris Ofili in Malick Sidibé’s studio, in Mali. Photo by Malick Sidibé.
Chris Ofili working in his studio.
Chris Ofili in Trinidad.
Chris Ofili was born on October 10, 1968 in Manchester, United Kingdom. He is a son of May Ofili and Michael Ofili. When Chris was eleven years old, his father left the family and settled down in Nigeria.
Chris studied at St. Pius X High School for Boys for some years and later he attended Xaverian College in Victoria Park, Manchester, United Kingdom. During the period from 1987 to 1988, Ofili studied at Tameside College. Also, in 1988, he enrolled at Chelsea School of Art (present-day Chelsea College of Arts), graduating in 1991 with Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
Between 1991–1993, Ofili attended Royal College of Art in London, where he attained Master of Fine Arts degree. In 1992, he won a scholarship, that allowed him to travel to Zimbabwe. Ofili studied cave paintings there, which had some effect on his style. The same year, he received a one-year exchange scholarship to Universität der Künste Berlin.
In 2000, Chris attended a painting workshop in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
During the period from 1995 to 2005, Chris produced a series of watercolors, that featured heads of men and women, as well as some studies of flowers and birds. From 2000 to 2005, he held the post of a trustee and council member of the Tate Gallery, London. In 2003, Ofili represented Britain at the Venice Biennale.
In 2005, the painter settled down in Trinidad, where he started to produce a series of blue paintings. Jab Jab or "blue devils", who participate in the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, and the Expressionist group of German and Russian artists, Der Blaue Reiter, served as an inspiration for him. The same year, in 2005, he was commissioned to decorate the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo.
Also, Ofili organized Freeness Project, that involved the coming together of artists, producers and musicians of minority ethnic groups (Asian and African) in an attempt to expose the music, that may be unheard in other spaces. The project resulted in "Freeness Volume 1" — a compilation of works, that were shown during the tour.
During his lifetime, Chris held many solo exhibitions, including those at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2005), the Kestner Society in Hanover (2006), the Arts Club of Chicago (2010) and others. In 2010, one of his most important exhibitions was held at Tate Britain. Another one took place at the New Museum in New York in 2014.
Currently, the painter divides his time between London, Brooklyn (New York) and Trinidad.
The Upper Room: Mono Rojo
The Upper Room: Mono Morado
The Upper Room: Mono Blanco
The Upper Room: Mono Gris
The Upper Room: Mono Naranja
No Woman No Cry
The Upper Room: Mono Marron
The Upper Room: Mono Negro
Double Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black Stars
The Holy Virgin Mary
The Upper Room: Mono Verde
The Upper Room: Mono Turquesa
The Upper Room: Mono Amarillo
The Upper Room: Mono Rosa
The Upper Room: Mono Oro
The Upper Room: Mono Azul
Afrodizzia (1st version)
Affrodizia (2nd version)
Nude Study in Blue
Untitled (Afromuse)
Quotations:
"The studio is a laboratory, not a factory. An exhibition is the result of your experiments, but the process is never-ending. So an exhibition is not a conclusion."
"Sometimes, as I feel a door or an exit point in my work is closing, I'll try to create an opening so as not to stifle the creative process, which I see as a process that's never-ending."
"When I was painting in art school - and I think many painters in the 1980s worked similarly - a finished painting would often be constructed from lots of other paintings underneath. Some of these individual layers of painting were better than others, but that was something that you would often only realise retrospectively."
"The studio is a place where I can experiment before I'm prepared for an idea to become a body of work, or a new way of working, or a way of working that can sustain me over a period of time."
"I was listening to a lot of hip hop, music like Public Enemy that was about raising consciousness, and I realised I could feed that directly into my work, using images in a way that was a bit like sampling - taking images from diverse places, exploring the contradictions without trying to hide the seams."
Chris is a member of Young British Artists movement.
Chris married Roba El-Essawy, a singer, in 2002.