Ato Arinze

           

Torso of a transgender bonded stone, 2014

 He was born in 1966, a native of Onitsha, Anambra state, in Nigeria. In 1991, Ato Arinze  graduated from Yaba College of Technology as a sculptor. In 2012 and 2014, he was a visiting Ceramics instructor at the Creative Art department in University of Lagos. He has participated in many exhibition both within and outside the country. He is a practicing studio artist and also a collector of Art works.

Ato Arinze is the co_founder and co_ordinator of the most popular Art group in Lagos_ Artzero, which for the past decade has been the platform for promoting the Art works of the upcoming Artist. They usually hold an annual exhibition, which is tag _ART ON THE MAINLAND and ART ON PAPER. This is the reflection of his passion for Art.

This distinguish artist has over 20 years of studio practice as a ceramics Sculptor he has gained a lot of experience and also an art of perfection which is reflected in his work. His medium of work is fired clay.  

He has also been an organizer of many workshops, seminars on Creativity, Art business, Pottery and Sculpture.
Ato Arinze received the Solidra Award for Sculpture and Pottery in 2002 and the SNA Distinguished Artist Award in 2008 by the Lagos Chapter of the Society of Nigeria Artist.

This is Ato Arinze's dream, 'our Art is growing and will continue to grow higher'. We need more of government and cooperative bodies support. He also added this article

Anonymous Creativity

Have you ever thought about it? We want to be famous as a writer, as a poet, as a painter, as a politician, as a singer, or what you will. Why? Because we really don't love what we are doing. If you loved to sing, or to paint, or to write poems, if you really loved it you would not be concerned with whether you are famous or not. To want to be famous is tawdry, trivial, stupid, it has no meaning; but, because we don't love what we are doing, we want to enrich ourselves with fame. Our present education is rotten because it teaches us to love success and not what we are doing. The result has become more important than the action.You know, it is good to hide your brilliance under a bushel, to be anonymous, to love what you are doing and not to show off. It is good to be kind without a name. That does not make you famous, it does not cause your photograph to appear in the newspapers. Politicians do not come to your door. You are just a creative human being living anonymously, and in that there is richness and great beauty. - Krishnamurti, J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life

Latest commission by Ato Arinze