"GRACE" Outdoor Sculpture - Limited Edition of 8

Emmanuel Okoro is a British-Nigerian sculptor working in bronze. His figures are elongated, stripped to essential gesture, and always rising. The work belongs to the African modernist tradition, where the extended vertical form carries dignity and lineage rather than erosion. Behind it stand the Nok terracottas, the Ife heads and the bronze traditions of Benin, and closer still Ben Enwonwu, whose figures ascend rather than recede.
Okoro pares down to reveal the essence of a state of being, of oneness and relationship, or of a moment, whether dancing, expectant or restful. His subjects are return, continuity and the weight one generation hands to the next.
His practice is built on mould-families: sculptures cast from shared origins, related the way generations within a family are. Heritage is built into the method, not applied from outside.
Born in Nigeria in 1972, Okoro lives and works in Bedfordshire. He graduated in Fine Art Sculpture from the University of the Arts London.