#finding fela
GALLERY: The Iconic Album Art of Ghariokwu Lemi
Nigerian graphic designer, fine artist and illustrator Ghariokwu Lemi occupies a unique position as the creative genius behind twenty-six of Fela‘s iconic album covers. Christened ‘The Artist’ by Kuti himself, the vivid social realism of Lemi’s works created between 1974 and 1993 provided a fitting visual accompaniment to the singer’s derisive anti-establishment lyrics with its cross of distorted collage, illustration and caricature.
After a chance meeting in 1974 with veteran Nigerian journalist Babatunde Harrison who was friends with Fela, a then-18 year old Ghariokwu was given the opportunity to design his first album cover for the musician. This inaugural assignment, for the authority-bashing Alagbon Close, came after Kuti’s mistreatment at the hands of the Nigerian police and depicted a larger-than-life Fela breaking free from the titular jailhouse while defending his Kalakuta Republic from baton-wielding policemen. The whirlwind success of this cover placed the young self-taught artist squarely within the afrobeat legend’s inner circle.
Lemi’s cartoonish renderings of Kuti’s lyrical indictments featured commentary on the social ills plaguing Africans due to media brainwashing and highlighted oppressive policies from corrupt governments. As the foremost visual translator of one of most outspoken musicians the world has seen, Lemi’s illustrated sociocultural critiques were as confrontational as the songs they depicted. His pictorial narratives lambasted political greed, police brutality, skin bleaching, lack of basic utilities as well as scathing takedowns of those with political power.
In an interview with Okayafrica last year, Lemi shed some light on one of his most famous sleeve designs — for Fela’s Beasts Of No Nation — which featured several world leaders as bloodsucking beasts with fangs and horns adding, “I have never received a negative response to date, 25 years on. I just think the art speaks for itself; one can never run away from the truth.” Besides his work with Fela, the highly prolific Lemi has designed over 2000 album covers for a wide range of artists including Bob Marley, Antibalas, E.T. Mensah and Gilles Peterson and has seen his work exhibited all over the world. Click through the gallery here for a sampling of the artist’s most famous sleeve designs for Fela Kuti.
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Okayafrica & Okayplayer are excited to host the premiere of Finding Fela this Friday at 7PM at the IFC Center, with a special Q&A afterward featuring Femi Kuti.Finding Fela, the new Fela Kuti documentary from Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney, begins its North American theatrical run this Friday with a weeklong engagement (8/1-8/7) at the IFC Center in NYC before the film expands to over 20+ cities. Stay caught up on all things Finding Fela via the film’s facebook,twitter, and official site.
For other showtimes and screenings of Finding Fela at the IFC Center in NYC, head here. The film runs August 1st-7th with showtimes at 11:20am, 1:40pm, 4:20pm, 7:00pm, and 9:35pm.
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