Nengi Omuku is a visual artist who lives and works in Lagos. She completed both her BA and MA at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London. She has had solo shows in Lagos, London, Berlin and New York, with institutional shows at La Galerie Centre d’Art Contemporain, Paris, the New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge and at the World Trade Organization, Geneva. 

Omuku’s work is inspired by the politics of the body, with a focus on interiority and the workings of the mind. The body of work on view, showcase a desire to capture the chaos that ensued as a result of the failure of the Nigerian government to manage massive unemployment, the collective response to police brutality and the global pandemic. She documents through painting, both the moments of solidarity and the display of the collective spirit, alongside the reality of the crisis that unfolded in Nigeria.

The images are rendered in oil paint on strips of a pre-colonial Western Nigerian fabric called Sanyan. This heritage cloth was originally created from woven threads of wild moth silk, blended with cotton. The display of the work is intentional, with the fabric hanging from the ceiling like a tapestry to showcase both the richness of traditional West African weaving as well as the oil painting. For the artist, the blend of oil paint and Sanyan speaks to living between cultures, yet firmly contextualizing her work within her local setting of Nigeria.