nkiruka oparah

Instagram: @jnkiruka

Website: http://www.nkirukaoparah.com/

Bio: nkiruka oparah is an artist and designer whose work engages aspects of drawing, collage, printmaking, sculpture, experimental animation, fashion, and installation. Their abstract compositions explore ideas of time, spirituality, and the diasporic psyche. They received a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Georgia and hold an MFA from California College of the Arts. oparah’s work has been exhibited at Eleanor Harwood Gallery, San Francisco; LAND AND SEA, Oakland; the University of California, Berkeley; 副本 INSTANCE, Shanghai, China; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; the School of Visual Arts, New York; the Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, and the Ford Foundation in Lagos, Nigeria, among others. They have been awarded a Fellowship Grant in Race & Ethnicity Studies from Brown University (2024) and have participated in artist residencies at Mood Projects, Anderson Ranch, BRIC Arts Media, and Kala Art Institute. Based in Oakland, CA, oparah is currently a Lecturer in the Experimental Media Arts program at Stanford University.

Statement: Created over the past two years, up until the past two weeks, the works I’ve included in Drawn explore mark-making gestures—some using water and drawing tools, others formed more expansively through the movement of my entire body. I work on the ground or, ritualistically, at the kitchen table. I find beauty and inspiration in everyday materials, often creating works on paper that take shape entirely within the present moment. I use my practice as an ongoing investigation of medium, material, and process—one that collapses the boundaries between landscape (psychological, emotional, art-historical) and portraiture.