NDIDI EMEFIELE

Curated by Péjú Oshin, Behind the Glass presents a career-spanning look at the work of Nigerian-British artist Ndidi Emefiele, bringing together paintings and mixed-media works made over more than a decade of practice. The exhibition moves from Emeiele’s earliest canvases made in Nigeria, through to the large-scale, mixed-media compositions she has become well known for.

Drawing on loans from private collections, works from her most recent museum show at Palazzo SUMS, and a selection from her most recent body of work, Behind the Glass offers a wide ranging presentation of Emefiele’s work to date, and an opportunity to see this evolution across paintings, textiles, and mixed media in a single space.

Together, the works reveal an artist who has steadily expanded the visual vocabulary available for depicting Black womanhood in contemporary art, moving away from familiar tropes of vulnerability and spectacle, toward something more guarded, self-possessed, and generous.