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, inclusion and marginalisation, and defining societal constructs such as race, nationality and gender, have strong influences on my work. All grounded in an inherent need to find connection beyond belonging and a still deeper need to decipher presence.

Generations of cross-cultural dialogues around migration, displacement, belonging and the search for a better life populate my family’s storytelling. The ever-present sense of displacement and the search for home. If this search - 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.

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 is a metaphor for the way presence is transferred to memory. After the ink is applied and then transferred from the plate to the paper, the plate is washed clean. The only record of what took place is the transferred image. It remains present, held in memory on the paper.

These themes of fragility, transience, presence and life as an ephemeral eternal flow align with the tradition and practice of Zen painting, working with ink and paper 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. Fragmentation and reintegration.

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.

Recent Highlights

  • 2025 Osten 80 Exhibition, Skopje, North Macedonia

  • 2025 Egypt International Print Triennial, Sector of Fine Arts, Egyptian Ministry of Culture

  • 2025 Yerevan Jubilee Fifth International Print Biennale, Armenia

  • 2024 Miniprint Cantabria, Spain

  • 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