For seven years and running, the Qatar International Art Festival (QIAF) has drawn hundreds of international artists from dozens of countries for a week of exhibitions, live painting, workshops, masterclasses, and more.
However, in 2025, which is the 7th edition, the major annual event gathered over 300 artists and others at the Cultural Village Foundation – Katara, Doha in Qatar from December 7-12, 2025 for the QIAF 2025.
Interestingly, Nigeria was on global spotlight at the international art festival as Stephen Chigozie Osuchukwu, an award-winning visual artist, impressed with his enthralling work of art. Osuchukwu, a trained sculptor at Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State, was excited at his participation at the fair, which started with the confirmation of his application for live painting activity at QIAF 2025 by the organisers.
At the festival, the Imo State-born Osuchukwu came up with his composition, which he titled: ‘Diversity Unites Us’. Rendered in charcoal on canvas medium, the intriguing work is about 20/30 inches in size and exciting to behold.
While Osuchukwu is a trained sculptor, his entry for the festival was a drawing. He explained the rationale for his entry saying, “In as much as I practice my sculpture, I love drawing and this has seen me in many spotlights”.
As expected, the QIAF 2025 featured many breathtaking entries and also rewarded the creative ingenuity of the participating artists, especially the first six with cash prizes and award plaques.
“I registered for the live painting competition, which rewards from the first prize down to the sixth prize. It was an incredible time to really showcase talent to the world,” he said.
But beyond just registering for the competition, Osuchukwu beat other global artists, as the judges of the competition judged his work titled, ‘Diversity Unites Us’ as the overall best and top among the six-winning works.
“I just want to compete to test my capability in the art industry,” he confessed.
Osuchukwu won QR 3,500 (about $1,000) for emerging as the overall winner, Spanish Luis Alava Herrera won the second prize cash prize of QR 2500, while Choi Dong-hwa, a South Korean, emerged third prize winner with QR 1,500 cash prize. Osuchukwu is the only African in the competition, which also featured Brazil, Germany and USA in the fourth, fifth and sixth positions respectively.
Reacting to his victory, the excited artist noted, “It was really not about the price money but about the prestige the pride to represent my own country Nigeria.
“I have won so many awards too numerous to mention but this latest is the QIAF in Doha is huge because the art festival showcased talented artists from all over the world with so much activities like, workshop, seminar, symposium, talk show, fashion show, live painting competition and so on”.
Also recalling the heat of the competition, he said, “As the day came, we got to work and everyone was focused, live painting was going on and media houses in Qatar were present”.
Yet, he has big takeaways from winning the QIAF 2025 Live Painting; persistence with his calling, ever opportunity matters and always improving on his craft.
According to him, his achievement at the QIAF 2025 has truly impacted his art career. “It will enable me to encourage the young generation artists to be focused and self-reliant,” he concluded.
But it has also impacted the Stephen Osuchukwu Arts, his art company, amid a huge global spotlight.
