Ken Okoli’s absracted landscape sculptures: The Zaria influence

Abstract

In art history scholarship the study of landscape has always been focused on the representation of beautiful sceneries in painting. Most of the attempt to represent landscape in relief sculpture has also been centered on the representation of human figures, animal forms, and generally on decorative patterns which form the background of such relief sculptures. In recognition of this paradigm, Ken Okoli has created some relief landscape sculptures inspired by the Zaria environ, especially the vernacular Hausa architecture and the baobab trees. This paper looks at the multifarious manifestation of landscape art and reviews its evolution in relief sculpture. The paper eventually discusses the educational background of Ken Okoli, analyzes some of his relief landscape sculptures and concludes by making some recommendations.