Nengi Omuku

Nengi Omuku (born 1987 in Warri, Nigeria) is a Nigerian visual artist whose painting and installation practice explores interior experience, belonging, community, spirituality, and humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Working primarily with oil paint on sanyan—a handwoven Nigerian textile—Omuku examines the psychological and social dimensions of the body through abstracted figures, dreamlike landscapes, and scenes of collective gathering.  Omuku received a BA in Fine Art in 2010 and an MA in Fine Art in 2012 from the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London. Her work often engages cultural memory, colonial history, horticulture, creation, displacement, and the desire for connection, using expressive brushwork and richly textured strips of sanyan to bring Nigerian textile traditions into conversation with European oil painting. Her figures frequently appear suspended between bodies and landscapes, reflecting the complexities of navigating identity, place, and social belonging.  Her work has been exhibited at the de Young Museum, Hastings Contemporary, Arnolfini, Kasmin, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, the Dakar Biennale, Dulwich Picture Gallery, and the Bangkok Art Biennale. She has received the British Council CHOGM Art Award, the ACBMT and Arnolfini International Artist Residency Award, and fellowships and residencies from Civitella Ranieri and Black Rock Senegal. Nengi Omuku lives and works between Lagos, Nigeria, and London, United Kingdom.