
One of our contemporary stars Azuka Muoh is back with a new collection that promises to both visually enchant and spark conversations about what matters to her. Store in a Cool Dry Place has a deliberately nostalgic thread to it and delves into the culture and customs around seemingly ordinary and everyday foodstuffs and how these nuances are laced into Muoh’s childhood in Nigeria, much of it under the shadow of the Catholic church and its problematic partner, colonialism. There is a universalism to this body and indeed a deeply personal thread.
Growing up in Nigeria ensures many of Muoh’s reference points are distinctly West African but this collection explores how so many of the motifs and memories integral to her childhood have their origins far further afield. Many of the foodstuffs manufactured in Europe and widely distributed throughout West Africa are part and parcel of any Nigerian’s taste and memory bank and this major theme for Muoh –is rich with symbolism. The incongruousness of these expensive and imported foreign foodstuffs in a country with many on the poverty line, despite its wealth of raw materials is something that sits uncomfortably and which she investigates beautifully in each piece.
Store In A Cool Dry Place is open for in-person viewing from 5 October–10 November 2023.





Azuka Muoh (b. 2000) is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. Her work explores the intricate relationship between memory, identity, and place, using visual storytelling to challenge the narratives that shape collective and personal histories. Drawing from her own lived experiences, Muoh reimagines cultural memory, interrogating how shared pasts influence the present. Her creative process is deeply rooted in design and film, a foundation that allows her to wield colour, form, and composition with striking intentionality, seamlessly merging technical precision with raw emotional depth. The result is a body of work that is both visually compelling and conceptually rich—works that carry weighty introspections on nostalgia, and kinship. At the heart of Muoh’s practice is a desire to question long-held societal norms and disrupt conventional perspectives. As a Nigerian woman navigating a deeply complex society, she uses her art to confront the interplay between tradition, modernity, and autonomy. Her pieces often serve as a commentary on generational shifts, highlighting the tension between inherited cultural values and the evolving realities of younger generations. Muoh sees art as both a mirror and a megaphone—a way to reflect lived realities while amplifying new possibilities. As she merges indigenous patterns with contemporary forms to question how identity evolves across borders, Muoh calls her peers to change—making for a common goal; to study the generations before them, so that they can better shape the world for themselves.
What started as an idea and a passion to assist and empower artists over the course of time evolved into the establishment now known as one of South Africa’s leading contemporary art galleries.

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