Uche Okeke is one of the giants of contemporary Nigerian Art, and the champion of uli art practice in Nigeria, which received international recognition following the exhibition, The Poetics of Line; Seven Artists of the Nsukka Group, at the Sylvia H. William Gallery of Modern Art, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. This exhibition, the symposium and the books that emerged from it; New Traditions from Nigeria (Simon Ottenberg); The Nsukka Artists and Nigeria Contemporary Art; represented a landmark in the exploration and documentation of uli art and its exponents. An art scholar, teacher and painter of international repute, he was one of the founding members of the Nsukka group, who developed with Chike Aniakor and others, the art programme of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.