Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy M.B.E

Chinwe is a versatile artist who works in oils, etchings, monotypes, pastels and sculpture.  Her subjects range from portraiture, still life and landscape, to pictures which capture the traditions and cultures of the African continent.

Chinwe has exhibited widely and her work is represented in public and private collections in many countries.

She received worldwide recognition for painting the official Golden Jubilee portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Head of The Commonwealth and for her work with a number of prominent personalities. In June 2009, Chinwe was awarded the MBE for services to art in the Queen's birthday honours list.

Chinwe has featured prominently  both for her art and also for her and educational work with young people.  A recent biography published by Tamarind, is now studied by children in the UK as part of the National Curriculum. In 2003 Chinwe addressed the European Council Committee in Paris on Contemporary African Art and Artists, and later that year was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of East Anglia. Chinwe’s work appeared on the national postage stamps of seven countries during 2006.

Chinwe has exhibited widely in recent years including two exceptionally successful events. The ’Celebrate’ Exhibition was specially organised in December 2003 for the Queen’s visit for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Abuja for which she painted a portrait of Chief Obasanjo, President of Nigeria. As well as over sixty pieces of her own Chinwe displayed the work of six other Nigerian artists, and started a major educational programme to encourage art in Nigerian schools. She also works regularly with schools and colleges in the UK.

‘Ancestral Footsteps’ at the Mall Galleries, London, 2005 showcased a vast body of new works and was met with much acclaim, preceded by ‘Seeing in Colours’ at The Gallery, in Cork Street, 2004, her Land, Sea and Sunsets exhibition in May 2007 was also at The Gallery in Cork Street.

For the 2007’s Black History Month, her week long residency at the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia in October produced many Drawings and Monotypes which were hung with the Sainsbury Collection. This unprecedented exhibition was on show till December 2007. Chinwe was also one of the artists participating in ‘Hawkins and Co’, an exhibition in Liverpool to mark the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Click here to listen to Chinwe talk to Martin Barber of the BBC about Black History minth and her work as an artist

July and August of 2008 saw her as one of the artists in Residence at the Glenfiddich Distillery, in Dufftown in Scotland. As well as painting the portrait of the Chairman of the Distillery Mr Peter Gordon, Chinwe made many more works some of which are in the Glenfiddich collection.

Other works from the Glenfiddich Residency have inspired the present woodcut series.