A Dynasty of Album Cover Art | Lemi Ghariokwu | Granta Magazine

A Dynasty of Album Cover Art

Lemi Ghariokwu

‘The music is as powerful as it gets and beneath his knife-edge, cutting sarcasm, Fela’s voice rages.’

Lemi Ghariokwu

Lemi Ghariokwu is a a self taught Nigerian Fine Artist, Graphic Designer, Illustrator and Songwriter, most renowned for providing many of the original cover images for the recordings of Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. He has designed more than 2,000 album in the last 39 years, including covers for Bob Marley, E. T. Mensah, Osita Osadebe and others. He is on Phaidon’s list of 100 emerging and influential graphic designers in the world. His painting Anoda Sistem, created in 2002, is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA). In June 2010 he was commissioned and successfully branded the FELA-BUS, a mural-on-wheels for the producers of the hit Broadway musical ‘FELA!’ in New York.

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