Amarachi Okafor
Artist-Curator, with over 20 years of experience in contemporary art and artistic projects implementation. Trained in Nigeria and the UK, I live and work in Abuja - Nigeria, working in Sculpture, Painting, Installation and Collaborative Public Art Events - that focus on people (society), communality (participation), and play (learning) -.
Assessing the things happening to people in the course of history, I am affected profoundly by human actions in the world, and I question... . I question our actions in society through history-, more so today; the impact of these actions (societal culture and individual choices); the nature of these impact, and their long/short term effects on us and on other people. How do our actions determine our condition and affect our relationships? How do we ‘use’ nature and one another? How do we affect one another?
Issues like these afflict my peace of mind and go on to get translated into my work as I transform materials by stitching, fastening, tying and binding bits and pieces together.
My other passion and work is documentation - curating artist's archives to support noted artists from Africa towards deepening and widening knowledge about art from Africa to wider audiences.
I have practiced art internationally, taking up various studio and public art activities in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and Asia through artist residencies, to studios that I have run on my own.
Currently, I work majorly from my studio and research space, located in Abuja.
I was, in 2007, a recipient of the prestigious Unesco Aschberg artists’ award which came with a Grant and an international residency to Lademoen Kustnerverksteder [LKV] in Trondheim Norway. In 2009, I was a recipient of the very competitive Commonwealth Foundation Commonwealth Connections Grant which in 2010, supported my travel to London and the Bahamas, for research and exhibition. I have been an international artist resident at Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dalsåsen – Norway, 2009 and Popopstudios, Nassau- Bahamas, 2010.
Upon graduating from Falmouth University, UK, I won the Art Department’s travel scholarship which supported my curatorial internship in London.
In 2014, I was awarded a prize at the National Art Competition in Nigeria. My debut solo exhibition was in 2007 at Babel Art Space, Trondheim, supported by UNESCO and the Trondheim Kommune; followed by another solo in 2008 at Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Wales.
In recent years I have continued to make projects in collaboration with the public and audiences at alternative spaces. An example is the set of unique relational meetings held at 4 locations as part of the Jogjarkarta Biennial, Indonesia in 2015; and the inaugural set of events (at schools, market place, and government offices) which won a prize at the National Art Competition in Lagos, 2014.
Besides making individual artworks and conducting workshops and research in the studio, I continue to actuate these very rewarding public art collaborations -rooted in Painting and Writing- engaging several levels of audiences, towards bringing them, and myself to new knowledge as we search our hearts to discover alternative ways of living.