Chief Ekpenyong Bassey Nsa

Nigeria

Chief Ekpenyong Bassey Nsa (b. 1973) is a third-generation multimedia Efik Artist at work in Calabar, Nigeria. He known for his raffia and cloth masquerade ensembles, funerary installations, beadwork embroidery, as a teacher of Ekpe masking choreography and nsibidi knowledge, as well as for his other creative talents. His father, late chief Bassey Ekpenyong Nsa (1933-1997), was his teacher, a highly renowned local Efik artist during his lifetime. Still to this day, stories about his father’s artistic abilities and innovations are commonly shared, especially when clients, friends and neighbors gather when chief Bassey Nsa is at work. According to most elder Efik cultural custodians, the importance of Bassey Nsa’s father is legendary, as he is often cited as the artist who modernized Ekpe masquerade ensembles.

Bassey Nsa’s abilities at manipulating color, compositional balance, and incorporating new materials, as well as other visual strategies, distinguish him from other artists in Calabar. These 11 innovations are easily recognized across his broad portfolio. Another talent of Bassey Nsa is his keen understanding of the rules of color when selecting and hunting for materials for his work in Calabar’s urban markets. Thanks to these innovations and his business acumen, in the last two decades, Bassey Nsa has successfully increased his patronage network. Even though he is of the Efik culture—a major source of his patronage—he also receives commissions from the other two long-standing ethnic groups of Calabar: Efut, and to a lessor extent, Qua-Ejagham patrons alike. He is also popular among government officials, who have sought him out for private commissions as well as for the state-funded festival, Carnival Calabar. Beyond the city, his commissions are wide and far, including but not limited to other cultural groups in southeastern Nigeria, national festivals held in Abuja, and an Ekpe masquerade ensemble for a Cameroonian community. And finally, a number of his masks are in Western collections, some of which are on permanent display and have been featured in special exhibitions. It is safe to say that chief Bassey Nsa has achieved notable recognition as a prominent artist at a relatively young age.