Artist Statement
As a Nigerian-born British-Asian artist living and working in South Africa, themes such as the nature of identity and belonging, the impact of exclusion and marginalisation have strong influences on my work. All grounded in an inherent need to decipher presence.
This has brought me to work with inks and paper, aligning with the tradition and practice of Zen painting to evoke the ebb and flow between being and becoming, between presences and absences. The ambiguity of figures - neither fully formed nor entirely absent - questions the transitory nature of being, hinting at stories untold, emotions unspoken.
Monotype printmaking forms the basis of my practice followed by a layering of diverse media. This process of transferring an image from a plate to paper mimics for me the way presence is transferred to memory. After the plate is washed, and the ink dissolves, it is the transferred image that remains present, held in memory on the paper.
Projects such as Infinity to the Power of Women bring the idea of presence to stories of silencing, erasure, marginalisation and exclusion. Through presence it is possible to reclaim narratives and discover new ways of being to shape societies of equality, diversity and inclusion.
Generations of cross-cultural dialogues around migration, displacement, belonging and the search for a better life populate my family’s storytelling.
If the search for home - geographical and metaphysical - forms the basis of the human story; then being present to our stories and the stories of others forms the beginnings of our humanity.
Recent Highlights
2024 Selected for SMGT Print Triennial, Krakow, Poland
2023 Artist-in-residency Invitation to Guanlan International Printmaking Base, China
2023 No halos, No Crowns Exhibition, Alliance Française, Cape Town, South Africa
2023 Finalist “Where the Mind has no Fear” exhibition, Bangkok, Thailand
2023 Long-listed Visual Art Open, United Kingdom
2023 Finalist Fourth Yerevan Print Biennale Armenia
2023 Finalist Awagami International Printmaking Exhibition, Japan.
2023 Finalist First International Biennale of Miniature Art Graphics and Drawing- Bitola - Macedonia
2023 Fifth Solo Studios in Riebeek Kasteel, South Africa
2023 Finalist Sofia Printmaking Triennial
2022 Consciousness Exhibition at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello, (Vortex) during the 59th Venice Biennale
2022 Finalist for Black & White Print Exhibition with Studio Next, Kolkata, India
2022 Finalist for Extinction: Save the Planet International with Gallerium Art Exhibitions
2022 Finalist for 5th Printmaking Biennial, Serbia
2022 Abstract*d Group Exhibition at The State of the Art Gallery, Cape Town
2022 ArtUnlocked Artist Studio Exhibition - Riebeek Kasteel
2022 Infinity to the Power of Women at The Mandela Foundation, Johannesburg, South Africa
2022 Vortex - The Space, Hermanus, South Africa
2021 Finalist Ink Masters Exhibition - Cairns, Australia
2021 Awagami International Printmaking Exhibition, Japan
2021 Finalist First International Political Activism Biennale
2021 Finalist and Curator’s Award People and Paintings Gallery - Sweet Little Nothings, New York
2021 11th International Printmaking Exhibition, Trakya University, Turkey
2021 Presence Exhibition, LKFF Gallery, Belgium
2021 Artist Residency at La Cité International des Arts, Paris
2021 Platforme Earth Exhibition, Paris (Vortex)
2020 Zeitz MOCAA (Cape Town) “Home is where the art is”
2017 Royal Society of Painter Printmakers for The Masters Exhibition at Bankside Gallery in London
Private Collections
South Africa, America, Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Lebanon, Namibia
Corporate Collections
Ericsson Zimbabwe, Biovac Institute South Africa, Deutsche Bank South Africa