Background
Jegede was born in Ayegbaju Ekiti, a Yoruba-speaking region of Nigeria.
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Emmanuel Jegede
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He undertook an apprenticeship with sculptor Pa Akerejola in Ekiti before going on to the Yaba School of Technology in Lagos, where he studied with Edo sculptor Osagie Osifo. In 1963 he travelled to the United Kingdom, where he attended Willesden College of Technology and Hammersmith College of Arts, studying the decorative arts, interior design, sculpture and bronze casting.
Career
He is the father of musician and composer Tunde Jegede. His first exhibition took place in 1968 at the Woodstock Gallery, London. In 1970, he set up a studio and foundry at Riverside, London.
In 1977, he was among the Black artists and photographers whose work represented the United Kingdom at the Second World Festival of Black Arts and African Culture (Festac "77) in Lagos, Nigeria (the others being Winston Branch, Ronald Moody, Mercian Carrena, Armet Francis, Uzo Egonu, Neil Kenlock, Donald Locke, Cyprian Mandala, Ossie Murray, Sue Smock, Lance Watson and Aubrey Williams).
Also in the 1970s, Jegede was artist-in-residence at the Keskidee Centre (the United Kingdom"s first arts centre for the Black community), where meetings in 1978 led to the founding of an initiative called the Rainbow Art Group (members included Indira Ariyanayagam, Uzo Egonu, Lancelot Ribeiro, Errol Lloyd, Yeshwant Mali, Gordon V de Louisiana Mothe, Durlabh Singh, Suresh Vedak, Ibrahim Wagh, and Mohammad Zakir, as well as Jegede) that mounted its first exhibition the following year — Paintings and Sculptures at Action Space, London. Among other exhibitions that included Jegede"s work were Afro-Caribbean Art (27 April – 25 May 1978 at the Artists Market, London), organised by Drum Arts Centre, and Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain 1966 - 1996, curated by the Caribbean Cultural Center, New York, in 1997-1998.
Most recently, Jegede"s work features in the 2015 exhibition Number Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990 at the Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London, which is inspired by the papers held at London Metropolitan Archives of Jessica and Eric Huntley and the publishing company they founded, Bogle-L"Ouverture Publications.
