NIGERIA - Nike Davies Okundaye (b.1951) is a world-renowned artist whom I have known for over thirty-five years. What an innovative pillar of strength she is! She draws extensively on her rich cultural heritage and fathomless imagination to create stunning batik, starch-resist and embroidered hangings. The pieces here are “embedded” (Nike’s term) with Yoruba Orisha agents. Accordingly, Young Mothers, the horizontal batik with two mothers and a baby holding a bottle, build and develop the world. After-World Mothers replicates and gives birth to the young mothers in the next world. In this batik, the large figure of a woman seated with a potion in her hands seems bigger than life. She is flanked by two cats who are either mother and child, or agents of the Orisha, or both. Osun Festival is about the river goddess Osun (or Oshun) who is celebrated annually in Oshogbo. One of Osun’s responsibilities is to look after and protect pregnant and expectant women. This large vertical starch-resist piece depicts a shrine in the top left corner, maiden dancers, and an oil lamp in the top right. The bottom half shows revelers, a woman carrying offerings and three musicians. The small vertical embroidery Arugba Osun shows virgins who carry the offerings to the goddess Osun during the annual festival. The vertical stripes in this piece seem to reverberate, while the level of the all blue eyes give a horizontal aspect to the composition, tying it all together. The Herbalist Woman, another vibrant embroidery, shows a woman keeping watch over all the newly born children, protecting them from evil spirits. The colors, patterns, variety of stitches and shading make a splendid piece.