Wura-Natasha Ogunji

Based between Lagos, Nigeria and Austin, Texas, Nigerian-American artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji, b.1970, focuses on drawings, video and performance art. Her work explores physicality, endurance and gesture of the body; our relationships to geographical, architectural and filmic space as well as memory and history.
Ogunji’s drawings are comprised of delicately hand-stitched motifs and loose ink and pencil marks on architectural trace paper involving the human form and abstracted scenarios. They are inspired by the daily interactions and frequencies that occur in the city of Lagos, from the epic to the intimate. Wura- Natasha Ogunji’s performances highlight the relationship between the body and social power and presence, investigating how women, in particular, occupy public space through both epic and ordinary actions: notions of labor, leisure, freedom and frivolity are explored.
Ogunji is a recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and has received grants from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation; The Dallas Museum of Art, and the Idea Fund. She has a BA from Stanford University (1992, Anthropology) and an MFA from San Jose State University (1998, Photography).

Submitted by 50 Golborne