In seven decades of active participation in Nigeria’s arts, design and culture spaces, Demas Nwoko’s critical interventions have been strident and consistent. His new book, Concrete Thinking, has been in the works for as long as he has been active, being the summation of his writings and thoughts on various concerns within the domains his work has straddled, over the years.

Demas Nwoko should need no introduction – a consummate artist, cultural producer and designer, whose life mission has been for real independence in Nigeria’s journey as a nation state, as expressed in the definition and redefinition of her national orientation through her cultural output. Nwoko’s generation it was who were handed the nation as young adults and had the first go at shaping her as they deemed fit right from the decade of the nation’s independence from colonial rule.

From his trajectory through the Nigerian College of Arts Science and Technology, Zaria (now Ahmadu Bello University) where he studied Fine Art and contributed as a leading light in one of the most significant art movements in Nigeria’s art history – the Natural Synthesis movement – driven by the so called Zaria Rebellion, to his illustrious multidisciplinary career as a painter, sculptor, set designer, lecturer in dramatic arts at the University of Ibadan, and subsequent robust output as an architect and builder, his contributions to nation building through his creative output and his philosophies, as concretized in his signature philosophy and practice under the New Culture brand, has been well documented over the years, in journals, magazines and festschrifts; but is being brought together in a comprehensive tome, for the first time, in Concrete Thinking.

The first public presentation of Concrete Thinking, by Demas Nwoko, published by New Culture Publications held during Design Week Lagos, on Sunday the 23rd of October 2022, at the Konga Place, 4 Oba Elegushi Road, Off Lekki-Epe Expressway, Ikate, Lagos.

The event was chaired by His Royal Highness, Oba Gbenga Sonuga, the Fadesewa of Simawa, long term associate and collaborator of Demas Nwoko and former Director of the Lagos State Council for Art & Culture.