African Women In the Art World
Art is an internal part of the African culture. We are so embedded in Art that it is evident in our Language, Food, Fashion, and Lifestyle to say the least.
As you know, here at Fashtracker we make it a point of duty to celebrate individuals with remarkable influence in their world as today we celebrate 3 African women in Art World.
Claire Idera is a multidisciplinary artist based in Lagos, Nigeria. She creates delicate representations of the young black woman who is in a transformative state of introspection. Her work centres around her personal journals from childhood to motherhood, portraiture and ethereal aesthetics. She is fascinated by the idea of identity and the role growth plays in finding it. With every painting, she attempts to relate the physical and mental metamorphosis of the female being using whimsical elements and colours.
Claire is a self-taught visual artist with a BSc in Architecture and a Masters in Fashion Design from Kingston University London. While her creative background forms her artistic processes, she also teaches her creative practice in schools. She was nominated for The Future Awards Africa 2016, Culture & Arts category which was the first of its kind. In 2018 she exhibited her paintings at Rele Gallery (Group Exhibition), Lagos. She began developing her artistic narrative in 2021 with a group exhibition at Four You Gallery, Dubai.
She works with a range of materials from oil to watercolour to acrylic and plastic.
Claire Idera started her teaching career in 2015 at the first Fashion Illustration Workshop which she founded in Lagos. She later taught art and fashion at Kingston University, Oxbridge College and currently at her independent design workshop, CIWorkshop.
Jacqueline Suowari is a Virtual Artist. Her artistic journey began at the age of five, and for the past decade, she has dazzled her ardent collectors with magnetic pieces that have grown larger than life.
The intriguing art of drawing inspires Jacqueline. Identity and subliminal human emotional responses inspire her because they influence perception and communication. Every single piece of her work contains thousands of ballpoint pen strokes, revealing the countless hours it takes to achieve perfection in her eyes, with a single piece sometimes taking several months to complete. She combines various design elements in each piece to share her experiences and inspiration with the audience.
Jacqueline has been featured in several publications, including Sandu Publishing's "Ballpoint Art; Complexity from Simplicity," which features a number of Ballpoint Pen artists from around the world, and Chukwuemeka Ben Bosah's book, "The Art of Nigerian Women," which chronicles some of the best Nigerian artists living and working today.
Chidinma Nnoli (born in 1998 in Nigeria) is a visual artist whose work challenges stereotypes, psychology, and cultural conditioning of women while exploring identity, sexuality, and mental health.
Nnoli's work, which is primarily in oil, confronts socially entrenched patriarchal power and misogyny as enforced by the state, familial relationships, and religious organizations. Fascinated by the concept of safe and enabling spaces, her work challenges contemporary society's reductive notions of femininity, gender roles, and mental health.
Nnoli received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Benin and has participated in numerous exhibitions throughout Nigeria. She participated in the inaugural edition of Rele Arts Foundation's Young Contemporaries Bootcamp in 2019 and was selected as a member of Rele Arts Foundation Young Contemporaries the following year. To Wander Untamed, her first solo exhibition will open in March 2021 at Rele Gallery in Lagos. Nnoli now resides and works in Lagos.
Tonia Nneji, a contemporary Nigerian artist, was born in Imo State, Nigeria, and comes from a long line of traditional carvers and masquerade carriers. Following in her family's artistic tradition, she earned a B.A (Hons) in Visual Arts from the University of Lagos in Nigeria in 2016. Nneji's work explores the relationship between trauma and the female body, and she is known for her use of bright colors and intricate patterns. Using her personal experience with personal health issues, she confronts a culture of suppression and silence on issues concerning women's physical and mental health, body autonomy, and sexual harassment in order to create safe spaces where free conversations can take place.
Her most recent works depict women's bodies in various stages of movement draped in colorful, intricately detailed swaths of print fabric. This interest in body forms and textile material explores the cultural and social meanings of fabric in contemporary African societies while also investigating the protective qualities of clothing. "I use drapery as a tool of concealment, to represent protection, a safe place," she says.
Nneji's work has appeared in prominent publications such as Nation Newspaper, Vanguard, and the Guardian, and she was honored on BBC Africa during 'International Women's Day' in 2017. Chimamanda Adichie, a prolific Nigerian author, also featured her work in her essay 'The New Guard,' which was published by Harper's Bazaar in 2020. Nneji received the Ronke Ekwensi Fellowship in 2018.
Nneji received the Ronke Ekwensi Fellowship in New Jersey in 2018, and her work was shown at the FNB Art Joburg in South Africa and the Miami Art Basel in Florida, USA in 2019. Nneji took part in the Rele Arts Foundation's Young Contemporaries program the same year. She also participated in the first-ever Young Contemporaries Alumni Exhibition at the National Museum of Lagos in 2020.