Peju Alatise

Peju Alatise (born 1975) is a Nigerian artist, poet, writer, and a fellow at the National Museum of African Art, part of the Smithsonian Institution. Alatise received formal training as an architect at Ladoke Akintola University in Oyo State, Nigeria. She then went on to work for 20 years as a studio artist.

Her work was exhibited at Venice Biennale’s 57th edition, themed Viva Arte Viva (Long Live Art). Alatise, along with two other Nigerian artists, Victor Ehikhamenor and Qudus Onikeku, were the first Nigerians to appear at the art exhibition. Her work was a group of life-size figures based on the life of a servant girl.

Alatise cites artist David Dale, Bruce Onabrakpeya, Nike Monica Davies, Susanna Wenger, Nigerian and Yoruba culture as influences of her artwork.

Early life Alatise was born in 1975 in Lagos, Nigeria. She and her seven siblings grew up in a traditional Muslim family.

Alatise first considered art as a career at the age of 15, when she viewed an exhibition by Nigerian artist David Dale.

According to Vogue, "Alatise defines her artistic practice as a search for truth and to this end much of her work centres on women in Nigeria and on the political and religious issues at the heart of the country."

Although Alatise started her artistic career by exploring three-dimensional illusions on two-dimensional surfaces, she also creates through literature. A leading voice for contemporary African artists, she has used her work as a medium and voice to address societal ills and changing the stereotypical narrative and ideology.

Art auctions Alatise's 2011 work titled "Ascension" was sold at N4.4 million in Nigeria's Art Auction, this made her work the best priced among emerging artists.

Awards Alatise received the 2017 FNB Art Prize at the launch of the 10th instalment of the FNB Joburg Art Fair. This art fair is located in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Other accomplishments Her most recent concerns include creating artist residencies in Morocco and Turkey. including the 2014 Casablanca Biennale in Morocco, Cooper Gallery for African and African American Art Harvard University, 2017, Resignification of Black Body, 2016 in Museo Bardini – Florence. Familiar boundaries - Infinite possibilities exhibition, August Wilson Centre, Pittsburgh, USA. Curator- Kilolo Luckett, October 2018–March 2019. EVA Ireland Biennial 2018. Curator- Inti Guerrero. Manifesta 12, Resignification of Black bodies. Palermo, Italy, Curator- Awam Ampka (New York University), June 2018. Péju Alatise Memoirs of the forgotten, 2019 Sulger Buel Gallery, London. Intricacies: Fragment & Meaning, Aicon Gallery, New York, 2019 Material Witness (2012): Nike Art Gallery, Lagos. Photography by Marc C and Yinka Akingbade WRAPTURE: a Story of Cloth (September 12–November 16, 2013): Art Twenty-One, Lagos. Photography by Marc C and Yinka Akingbade Casablanca Biennale 2014: Ifitry residency, Essaouira, 2013 1:54 CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ARTFAIR (2014): Somerset House, London 57th Venice Biennale (2017): August Wilson Centre for Arts, 2018 Prelude, pretexts and presumptions (2018): Arthouse Contemporary, Lagos