Art_Africa_2016_02_

ARTAFRICA

REVIEWS

MAGIC / OBIDIKE OKAFOR

MAGIC

Wura-Natasha Ogunji & Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze

Omenka Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria

by Obidike Okafor

Wura Ogunji and Ruby Amanze visualise questions and experiences of navigating life as

nomadic hybrids in their latest exhibition, titled ‘Magic.’ The fifteen works on display at

the Omenka Gallery in Lagos narrate Amanze and Ogunji’s love of drawing and are the

result of growing up and living in different nations across the globe.

‘Magic’ conjures up the fluid nature of identity caused by moving between places;

languages, cultures and ideas, while creating an illusion initiated by blurred physical

boundaries – leading to a new form of existence where meaning is lost between reality

and fantasy.

The collaborative flame began to burn for the duo when they first met in Lagos in 2012.

Ogunji was born and grew up in the United States but travelled to Nigeria after being

awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, while Amanze – who was born in Nigeria but grew

up in the United Kingdom and the United States – was in Nigeria as a Fulbright Fellow.

The meeting led them to develop an artistic vocabulary and new techniques in drawing

that both Amanze and Ogunji use to construct their own stories; scrutinising cultural

multiplicities, travel, migration and shifting identities.

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