Eden (2022) is a new, monumental painting on sanyan by Nigerian artist Nengi Omuku. In this work – her largest to date – the artist references the biblical paradise, invoking a longing for a pre-fall state of tranquillity and a oneness with nature. Omuku expands on the solace to be found in nature and its connections to themes of rest and sanctuary, which have occupied her since the pandemic. Eden presents an enlargement of this allegorical journey from darkness into light; the eye traces a path across the mural-sized canvas, following the passage of figures as they traverse a utopian landscape composed in a vivid, Fauvist palette.
In her work, Omuku interrogates ambiguity and liminality with a focus on interior psychological spaces. Her paintings present scenes of figures in constant flux, interacting with one another and the landscape around them. As an avid horticulturist, Omuku finds inspiration in interactions with the natural world. Influenced by both archival and current images taken from the Nigerian press and media, she creates worlds in which the distinction between bodies and nature is often blurred, reflecting on the intricacies around navigating place and belonging. The spectral figures in her works have their faces deliberately obscured; silent observers whose gaze penetrates out towards the viewer. In Eden, Omuku resists singularity on a grand scale, embracing the collective experience in its wide-ranging scope.
Sanyan is a pre-colonial Nigerian cloth traditionally used for making clothing, reflecting Omuku’s interest in memory and identity. Presented suspended in the exhibition space, the work responds to the motion of visitors, as though cloth on a body, inducting the viewer into the cultural history of the artist’s birth country. The painting continues her investigation into the confines of the body, exploring multiple versions of an individual figure across a single canvas in pursuit of a continuous and yet, non-linear, narrative, something that she first embarked on in the works included in her first exhibition at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, in 2022.
Nengi Omuku (b. 1987, Nigeria) lives and works in Lagos, Nigeria. She received her BA (2010) and MA (2012) from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London. Omuku is the founder of The Art of Healing, an organisation that aims to transform inpatient mental health units in Lagos with contemporary art. She is currently in residence at Black Rock Senegal, an artist-in-residency programme founded by Kehinde Wiley in Dakar, Senegal. She is included in the 2022-2023 Bangkok Art Biennale. Recent solo exhibitions include Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London (2022); Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London and Berlin (2020-2021); Stages of Collapse, September Gray, Atlanta (2017); and A State of Mind, Omenka Gallery, Lagos (2015). Recent group exhibitions include What Lies Beneath: Women, Politics, Textiles, New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge; Dissolving Realms, curated by Katy Hessel, Kasmin Gallery, New York; The Company She Keeps, Tiwani Contemporary, Lagos; Self-Addressed, curated by Kehinde Wiley at Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles (2021); The Invincible Hands, Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art, Lagos, Nigeria (2021); Karim Kal and Nengi Omuku, La Galerie, Contemporary Art Center, Noisy-le-Sec (2021); and Dancing in Dark Times, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London (2021). Her works have been collected by public and private collections internationally, including Pérez Art Museum Miami; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Baltimore Museum of Art; and The Whitworth, Manchester.