Yadichinma Ukoha-Kalu

Yadichinma Ukoha-Kalu, born in Nigeria, 1995, studies lines and forms to question the world and navigate the experience of discovery. An experimental artist, her varied mediums include digital media, film, painting, photography and sculpture. Her work is in constant evolution as she is inspired by the theme of change.

Yadi uses research and documentation of everyday life to instruct her creations, resulting in true exploratory experiences taking place in imaginary spaces. In a string of experiments with gouache paint, she conceives a space in the Birthscape series (2017) for her invented objects to thrive in. She describes curiosity as her motivating force and this compliments the futuristic elements evident in her work. This distinct feature is discovered in Thought Lines (2017), a study that suggests a new creation – a process of communication or engagement.

Yadi’s first solo exhibition, BIG 60, Crossing borders, took place at A Whitespace Creative Agency in Lagos, 2013. In 2017, Stevenson Cape Town presented A painting today, her maiden group show in South Africa.

Group exhibitions include Artyrama Pop Up Show in Lagos (2017); Prizm Art Fair, Miami (2017); Intense Art Magazine Launch at Alara Lagos (2017); Art X Lagos, Stevenson Gallery booth (2017); Mckinsey meets Art, Mckinsey Lagos (2017); Opening Shadows at WAFFLESNCREAM Lagos (2017); EHN, Art X Lagos (2016); Philosopher’s Muse, Lagos (2016); The Young Contemporaries at Rele Gallery in Lagos (2016), and Woman In Bloom, Freedom Park Lagos in 2015. Yadi was nominated for the Orisha Prize, Gallerie Appartment, Paris (2017) and the Swiss Vontobel (A New Gaze) Photography Prize (2018).

As a full time artist living and working in Lagos, Yadichinma’s currently focused on delving into the processes of documentation and research with an intent to use learned and invented tools to create and build archives within a Nigerian context.