Born to Nigerian immigrant parents, Chinedu Felix Osuchukwu spent his early years between his birthplace of Washington, DC and Nigeria. Throughout his career as an artist, he has been greatly influenced by his children Chinedu F. Osuchukwu II , Chike Nigel Osuchukwu, Chioma Osuchukwu and both his American and Nigerian culture.
Osuchukwu graduated from the famous Duke Ellington School of the Arts and received his BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, DC. At the Corcoran, Osuchukwu studied under the tutelage of such artists as John Dickson, Kendall Buster and William Newman. While there, he began to develop a painting style of his own and developed a love for his chosen medium, oil paint. During his senior year Osuchukwu found his life’s purpose, to “live to create.” He uses his gift of creating art, whether oil on canvas, board, paper or even in sculpture, to bring awareness to issues of social and political justice.
His body of work is a compilation of everyday life situations and reflects people everywhere. Most of his work is oil on canvas and as Kandinsky so eloquently stated, Osuchukwu also, “applies streaks and blobs of colors onto the canvas with a palette knife and makes them sing with all the intensity they could.” His paintings reflect a wide use of vibrant color, which can be seen in three of his most recent bodies of work.
Chinedu has been featured in museums, galleries, esteemed personal collections and periodicals worldwide. His work has been featured at the Du Sable Museum in Chicago, Frederick Douglass Maritime Museum in Baltimore, Watergate Gallery, Umezi School in Nigeria, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, National Children’s Hospital, Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine, Immaculate Conception (Church Logo), DC Commission of the Arts Collection, Peggy Cooper Cafritz Collection, and Thiadiaye School (Visual Arts Department Named after Chinedu Felix Osuchukwu) in Senegal.
Osuchukwu has been teaching art in Washington DC area schools for the past fifteen years. He has inspired thousands of kids with teaching art and starting the Art Department for Cesar Chavez.
Chinedu is also the founder and CEO of “I Live to Create Studios, Inc.” an arts education and portfolio development program. He finds his strength being active in in the community. Volunteering as a judge annually for NAACP ACT-SO Competition just to name one of many things he does. Currently he is working on his Masters of Fine Arts degree at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. He resides in DC with his wife , Mona, and three kids.
