Wura-Natasha Ogunji
So Pretty , 2022
Thread, oil, spray paint on linen
274.3 x 214.6 cm
108 x 84 1/2 in
108 x 84 1/2 in
WNO 022
Copyright The Artist
Further images
“I am deeply interested in how our creative work as artists embodies the forms and poetics of Lagos: the stops and starts of moving through traffic; the choreography of the...
“I am deeply interested in how our creative work as artists embodies the forms and poetics of Lagos: the stops and starts of moving through traffic; the choreography of the market; the deep red earth; water all around us; the return of electricity signalled by a fan turning on…A painting moves up the wall with a pulley…We pass images, and the images pass us.” For Ogunji, the space of the imagination and artmaking is expansive and liberatory, the space becomes a place to bring focus to, unique Lagosian gestures, ways of being, thinking
and moving in the world. Drawing inspiration from Caribbean philosopher and poet, Édouard Glissant, space, becomes a site for transforming how we approach and remake this current world: by seeing, feeling, and knowing that there are other ways of being and making that we had not yet imagined. Parallel to these conceptual considerations, the works on show are also an exploration of
Ogunji’s own transnational movements, and how these affect the form of the work she creates. How do paintings cross borders? Ogunji is interested in the ways in which new language arises from transnational quandaries, broadly, and specifically. This selected presentation reflects the diversity of Ogunji’s practice, that encompasses performance, painting, drawing, and embroidery on linen and paper; a memoir, the ebb and flow of a life, a rupture, a seam, a series of notes and mistakes, the filling and emptying of space.
Visual artist and performer Wura-Natasha Ogunji creates hand-stitched drawings on tracing paper and large-scale paintings. Her works often include figures running, jumping or moving through space, a nod to her history as a photographer, as well as her own running practice. Ogunji's most recent works incorporate text and sometimes include imagery on both sides of the paper or linen. Her work often speaks about her experiences living in Lagos, Nigeria--from the personal (notes in her father's dream journals) to the collective (interactions in busy market spaces). Her performance practice also informs her use of materials and methods.
and moving in the world. Drawing inspiration from Caribbean philosopher and poet, Édouard Glissant, space, becomes a site for transforming how we approach and remake this current world: by seeing, feeling, and knowing that there are other ways of being and making that we had not yet imagined. Parallel to these conceptual considerations, the works on show are also an exploration of
Ogunji’s own transnational movements, and how these affect the form of the work she creates. How do paintings cross borders? Ogunji is interested in the ways in which new language arises from transnational quandaries, broadly, and specifically. This selected presentation reflects the diversity of Ogunji’s practice, that encompasses performance, painting, drawing, and embroidery on linen and paper; a memoir, the ebb and flow of a life, a rupture, a seam, a series of notes and mistakes, the filling and emptying of space.
Visual artist and performer Wura-Natasha Ogunji creates hand-stitched drawings on tracing paper and large-scale paintings. Her works often include figures running, jumping or moving through space, a nod to her history as a photographer, as well as her own running practice. Ogunji's most recent works incorporate text and sometimes include imagery on both sides of the paper or linen. Her work often speaks about her experiences living in Lagos, Nigeria--from the personal (notes in her father's dream journals) to the collective (interactions in busy market spaces). Her performance practice also informs her use of materials and methods.
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