Ephraim Urevbu
Ephraim Urevbu was born in Warri, Nigeria, where he attended the Yaba College of Art. After immigrating to America in the late 1970s, Urevbu earned his BFA and MFA from the University of Memphis. Urevbu opened his own gallery, Art Village Gallery, on South Main Street in downtown Memphis. Due to Urevbu’s influence, this area is now known as the South Main Arts District. In August 2000, Urevbu received a Vision Award for outstanding contribution to the development of downtown Memphis. Recently, Art Village Gallery has begun representing other national and international artists.
The interview was conducted by Ilana Stanger of TheArtBiz.com.
You emigrated from Nigeria to the United States. What brought you to Memphis?
Two things. First, I wanted to explore the world. Second, I wanted to escape pressure from my family. My parents didn’t want me to go to art school; they wanted me to go to medical school. Where I come from you just don’t say no to your parents. So, I left. I knew if I got far away there’d be less pressure.
How is being an artist in America different than in Nigeria?
In Nigeria art school is very serious, there’s a lot of formal training. I went to Yaba College of Art in Nigeria, and then I taught art to high school students for one year. After that, in 1979, I came to Memphis. I studied for two years at the Memphis College of Art and then I transferred to the University of Memphis and earned my BFA and MFA in painting. In Nigeria being an artist is like being a doctor. The course is gruesome and taxing. Instructors are on you 24 hours a day, and you must always be on site--if you have an assignment to paint a market scene then you must go to the market and paint there. You must always first complete a sketch, and only after your instructor approves the sketch can you transfer that to the canvas. Nothing can appear on the canvas that was not in the sketch, and everything is graded. Here there is more freedom to do whatever you want to do. As a young artist I felt there should be some guidance. But as you get more experience, then some freedom is given to you to become a whole lot more creative.
You own your own gallery, Art Village Gallery. How did this come about?
I’ve had the gallery for ten years. After I finished graduate school I was viciously looking for a teaching job, and everyone turned me down. I needed to find something different to do, so I opened a studio on Beale Street in downtown Memphis. Beale Street is a tourist haven, and on weekends I made a lot of money. I would paint and play music--it was a real warm atmosphere, and people put money in my contribution box and bought my art. I ran that gallery for four years, and then looked for a bigger place. I found three abandoned warehouses on the South Side of Main Street in downtown Memphis. So that became my studio--5,000 square feet.
Kysha (Kysha Benjamin, Urevbu’s fiancée and Art Village Gallery director) came on board two years ago. I didn’t want to manage a gallery--I wanted to be true to my career as an artist.
Do you support yourself from the gallery?
Yes. There are other businesses in the gallery too--we have a frame shop with a part-time framer, and we’ve just opened Zanzibar, a coffee shop/bar/gallery. It’s the most beautiful coffee shop in the world. It’s like walking into one of my paintings.
Who are your collectors?
I have collectors all over the United States, and especially in New York and Florida. I built my career on the road, visiting a lot of arts festivals. My work is cross-cultural, and it features a wide range of subject matters that everyday people can relate to. It’s also got lots of color, a lot of warmth, which people really like.
How do you manage the expense of traveling to and registering for art shows?
The first art festival I went to I rented a van and a tent, and I charged everything. I took a chance that’d I be able to pay it all back, and I made $24,000. I went to art shows for eight years, but now I don’t go to them anymore.
How do you earn so much from your work?
Back then I sold tiles for just five dollars each. I sold a lot of those, and then some paintings as well. Now I also do lithographs and serigraphs, and I participate in a lot of fundraisers, where I donate my art for charity. The fundraisers give me exposure, and bring corporate buyers. I also do commissioned pieces--my biggest was a 60 x 14 foot mural for the Memphis Wolf-Chase galleria.
Many artists say you have to work in New York or Los Angeles to really make it, but you’ve been pretty devoted to working in Memphis and revitalizing the art scene there. What are the advantages or disadvantages to working in a small city?
There are a couple of advantages. First, as the saying goes, ‘In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.’ There are only a few “professional” artists in Memphis--by that I mean artists who make a living from their art, and are seriously dedicated to it. So, there’s a large audience with little competition.
I’m also close to the whole US--Memphis is smack in the center of the country. I can be in New York in an hour and 45 minutes, or Los Angeles in 2 hours and thirty minutes. I also have Fed Ex. I can go to a show, come home, and have all my work sent to buyers in less than a week.
The third thing is that Memphis is small, and the cost of living is low. I can own 5,000 square feet. Memphis is like virgin territory--we’re like pioneers in the old West. Memphis is beginning to attract artists--they’re starting to move in to the abandoned warehouses. Because I’ve been here I’ve been able to influence politicians to dedicate South Maine as the new art district. I’m known here--at the opening of Zanzibar we had 800 people, it was like a Memphis Who’s Who. Also, I know that I can attract media coverage to any event I do.
Having said all that, I do love the potential of big cities. But I can go to those cities and do shows. I wouldn’t trade Memphis for any other city right now.
My advice to artists is that they should move to a small city where the cost of living is low. They can reach anybody through the Internet.
You represent yourself. Why did you decide to do that?
I represent myself and I do it well. When I first graduated I went to galleries and tried to get represented. They weren’t familiar with my style, and they weren’t willing to give me an opportunity. I was not even able to get a gallery in this city. Memphis is very racially divided. For a while it was not chic to show the work of black artists, especially if they didn’t understand it. Galleries also want to control everything--they want to take 60% of sales and that sort of thing. The whole business side of it was really a turnoff to me. I thought if they could do it, I could do it better. But it does take away from your creative time.
Does your gallery represent other artists?
We’re just beginning to represent eight artists from six different countries. I travel widely. I meet a lot of artists, and I have my own collection of art. I invite artists to come do shows, especially Nigerian artists who have difficulty showing work.
If an artist is interested in being represented by you, what should he or she send?
Send us photographs. If you send slides we may have to wait to use the slide projector, and then we’ll put the art aside and forget about it. So sending photographs is better.
What advice would you give to artists who are just beginning to produce serious work?
Really learn to survive as an artist. The conventional wisdom of graduating art school and then getting gallery representation just isn’t true anymore. Galleries want quick returns and immediate appeal. Take your career in your own hands. Go to art festivals and build a national mailing list. Go directly to the consumers, bypassing the galleries. Then you can open your own gallery or approach an established one and you’ll have a stronger base.
This article was originally created for TheArtBiz.com. It appears on NYFA Interactive courtesy of the Abigail Rebecca Cohen Library.
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