Nnamdi Okonkwo: Mormon Sculptor
Nnamdi Okonkwo is a painter and sculptor; he especially favors the medium of sculpting. “I feel a deep spiritual connection with sculpture. . . . Right from the beginning, there was something about volume and mass in sculpture that was compelling and arresting to me. I was easily led to render everything in a scale that was uncommonly outsized and larger than life.”[1]
Okonkwo credits his mother’s encouragement and support for pursuing art seriously. He was born in 1965 in Eastern Nigeria and earned a degree in painting in Nigeria. At six feet nine inches tall, he began playing basketball and was later recruited to play college basketball at Brigham Young University-Idaho where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Art degree in sculpture in 1993. He then earned his Master of Fine Art degree in sculpture from Brigham Young University.
He met and married his wife, Deidra, in Provo, Utah. They live in Fayetteville, Georgia. His work is exhibited throughout the United States and is found in public and private collections.
Okonkwo is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
