Cover Girl

About the Photographer

Udé, Iké

Nigerian-American, b. 1964

Nigerian-born artist Iké Udé works between photography and performance art in his ongoing series of self-portraits, "Sartorial Anarchy." Exploring the multiple personae that one can adopt, Udé plays with theatricality, fashion, and notions of celebrity in his portraiture, revealing identity to be both cultural construct and individual creation. Through overt self-styling that combines historical and contemporary fashion, he explores the ambiguities of gender, sexual, and cultural representations within the art world. The haute couture vibe of Udé’s work is achieved through the elaborate construction of props, costume, pose, painted backdrops and post-production. His work is in the permanent collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Smithsonian Museum of Art, and RISD Museum, among others.