Thoughts & Reflections: Review of Chike Aniakor’s sold-out exhibition

Last year, precisely, November 18-22,2025, Thought Pyramid Gallery Abuja had a unique engagement with the visual art world, amid visitations by high-profile personalities.

The contemporary gallery, which also has an outlet in Lagos, hosted art lovers, top government functionaries, the diplomatic circle, and art academics in an enthralling exhibition titled ‘Thoughts & Reflections’.

For the four days the exhibition held, Chike Cyril Aniakor, a renowned Nigerian professor, artist, art historian, author, and poet, and his 57 incredible works were the major highlights.

Some of the 57 works include: A New Dawn, I Exist, Rhythms of Peace, The Unity, Inner Reflection, Bleeding Landscape, Lady With Long Hair, At The Village Centre, The Female Chanter, Where The Owl Sees a Stranger, among others.

The visitors had many reasons for leaving other engagements at that time to see Professor Aniakor’s works.

Of course, their visitations and efforts paid off as the exhibition, which was a solo show by Professor Aniako, an artist and art historian, lived up to and even beyond their individual and collective expectations.

For many of the visitors, the memory still lasts till date as Professor Aniakor opened the door to his creative world in the exhibition, which explored his two decades of experimentation with Uli and mastery of his craft with that unique art form.

The Uli art consists of iconography, aesthetics, and the spiritual symbolism embedded in the Igbo traditional forms.

For the attendees, each of the 57 works on display, mostly acrylic works on paper, acrylic works on canvas, pastel on paper and charcoal on paper, spoke volumes on Professor Aniakor’s creative ingenuity. Collectively, they highlighted the techniques, thoroughness, experiment and creativity that distinguish Aniakor’s works from others.

The sheer creativity of the works and the great personality behind them were majorly what made the Colliery Foundation, which is based in Abuja, to sponsor the exhibition, as well as Ejike Ekwenibe.

Obi Nwaegbe, the curator, with his influence in the visual art circle, also gave many others reasons to see the November solo exhibition in Abuja.

The unique way in which the works were displayed, mostly in relation to their mediums, with the paintings and matching titles, offered further appeal to the viewers.

While Professor Aniakor’s large canvases graced the walls, many of the paper works found themselves on pillars and boards at the center of each space within the exhibition halls.

Intriguingly, the works were not for sale. This uncommon gesture gave the viewers even more mental space to appreciate the works without any pecuniary pressures.

Well, it was a masterstroke that delivered by putting Aniakor’s art where it was meant to exist, in the realm of the highly valuable, even priceless.

But local and foreign dignitaries, who attended the exhibition in a magnitude that was befitting of the status of the iconic artist, were very appreciative of the generosity of the professor.

The dignitaries were really many and top-notch. From US Ambassador, Richard Mills, to Obi Asika, director general, National Council for Arts and Culture, (NCAC), to Kieth Heffman, US deputy head of Mission and Brian Neubert, head of public diplomacy, both of the US, and to Sandra Alonge, director of programmes, GIZ, and husband Bolaji, and Marcia Kure, renowned Nigeria-American artist, they were all excited to see Professor Aniakor’s works.

Even fellow academics in attendance, and students; Agwu Enekwachi, Moses Ibanga, Chike Obeagu and others, all sang praise of the works and the creator.

In his words of appreciation, Obi Nwaegbe, the curator of the exhibition, commended the artist, noting that the painstaking process of organising the exhibition has been extremely tasking and demanding of his time, energy and resources.

“It took more than two years to get to this point. I must thank Professor Chike Cyril Aniakor, for giving me the opportunity to catalogue, document and curate his impressive body of work,” Nwaegbe said.

He also recognised the efforts of his team members at The Colliery and The Colliery Foundation, Onyema Offoedu-Okeke, and Moses Ibanga, especially the energy they poured into the project, the long phone calls, the sleepless nights they endured and the backbreaking demands that they encountered along the way.

“As we interact with, think and reflect on this body of work, may it continue to be a window through which we experience, commune and view the world from the eyes of the artist, and from multiple perspectives,” he said.

Obi Asika, director general/CEO, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), described ‘Thoughts and Reflections’, as a landmark exhibition celebrating one of Nigeria’s foremost modern artists and cultural scholars.

According to Asika, Professor Aniakor is a towering figure in the canon of Nigerian and African art, not just for his visual brilliance, but for his enduring commitment to preserving, interpreting, and elevating our cultural heritage.

“His work spans decades of disciplined inquiry and creative mastery, drawing deeply from the well of indigenous knowledge systems, particularly Uli iconography, Igbo aesthetics, and the spiritual symbolism embedded in our traditional forms.

“This exhibition is more than a retrospective; it is an invitation into the mind of a master thinker, a visual philosopher whose strokes of pen and brush capture not only beauty, but also memory, resistance, and renewal. As an artist and academic, Aniakor has helped shape generations, both through his legacy as a teacher, mentor, and intellectual,” Asika said.

On his part, Professor Aniakor, was appreciative of the fact of being healthy and strong at 86 years, to create and exhibit his works of over two decades.

The professor also thanked all the visitors, especially the sponsor and was happy for their interaction with his works, and appreciation of some of the subjects of his ruminations at this stage of his life.