Ifeoma U. Anyaeji

born in 1981 in Benin City (Nigeria)

statement
bio / C.V.

Ifeoma U. Anyaeji is a Nigerian neo-traditional artist born in Benin City who decided to take-up art as a full-time career exploring her boundaries, as a female artist beyond the conventions of her initial academic training in painting. She later went on to pursue her earlier interest in sculpture and engaging further her passion for non-conventional art making and repurposing discarded objects, an interest stimulated by the constant environmental problems she encountered around her community particularly from non-biodegradable plastic bags and bottles. While experimenting with these discarded environmental pollutants, engaging possible processes of object remaking and reuse especially with non-conventional art making techniques and traditional craft processes, Anyaeji developed a style of art she calls “Plasto-Art”. This is an eco-aesthetic process of remaking, where she transforms her primary medium - used non-biodegradable plastic bags and bottles - by applying her crafting skills in a receding traditional Nigerian hair plaiting technique called Threading, combined with traditional basketry and fabric weaving techniques. Using this technique, Ifeoma creates very conceptually complex and organic sculptures and installations, with intricate textures and colours, that reference architectural forms, domestic spaces and furnishings, reiterations of cultural experiences, and discourses about the human body.

Ifeoma U. Anyaeji was born in 1981 in Benin, Nigeria.

Selected solo exhibition

2023

Ifeoma Ugonnwa Anyaeji : Ijem nke Mmanwu m (The journey of my masquerade), Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland, GB (upcoming)

2021

Africa Universe - Part II, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, IT

2020
Nzuko Umuada, nke abo (the Second Meeting of the daughters of the land),

2019
Ezu hu ezu – In(complete), BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom
2017
Courtyard Project - Swirl Bin, FOFA Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

2016
A no m'eba… (I am here…, Presence, Absence), Galerie d'Art LSB, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

2015
Owu, Skoto Gallery, Chelsea, New York, USA

2013
Transmogrification, Skoto Gallery, Chelsea, New York, USA
Plasto-yarnings: a conversation with plastic bags and bottles, Alliance Française, Nairobi, Kenya

2012
Reclamation, The Craft Studio Gallery, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
Now I’m born this way will you still see me as…, Lewis Center, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA

2011
Okilikili, Lewis Center, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA
The Things We Leave Behind, Lewis Center, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA

Selected group exhibition

2018
The Black Sphinx II, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy
The Black Sphinx II, Primae Noctis Art Gallery, Lugano, Switzerland
Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials, Palmer Museum of Art, Chazen (traveling group exhibition till 2020)
Les Éclaireurs – sculpteurs d’Afrique (collection Fondation Blachère), Palais des Papes, Avignon, France

2017
Skoto Gallery, Chelsea, New York, USA
In Edeniye, a City of the Future, Yermilov Center, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Up: Rise Leve: Levee, Galerie d'Art LSB, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
While no one was looking, Galerie MainLaine, Montreal, Canada
Be Bold for Change, Female Artists Association of Nigeria
Celebration of Black History Month, Bank of Montreal rue St. Jacques, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

2016
Dissonant Integrations, Ethnocultural Art Histories Research and Z-Art space, Montreal, Canada

2015
Gallery Artists, Skoto Gallery, Chelsea, New York, USA
SalonEsque, MAI Gallery, Montreal, Canada
Thresholds: Presence, Absence, and Territory, Gladstone Art gallery, Toronto, Canada
Basket Case II, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

2014
La Parole aux Femmes (Women Speak Out), Fondation Blachère, Apt, France
Women in National Development, Female Artists Association of Nigeria and French Embassy in Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria
The Role of Art in National Development: Society of Nigeria 50th Anniversary, Omenka Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria
Basket Case II, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe

**Ifeoma U. Anyaeji - Ókpókóló éjùnà (Snail shell) - (Sold)**
2023 - Repurposed discarded non-biodegradable plastic bags (Plasto-yarns) and bottles, found wood, twine, metal wire, found objects, and plexiglass - 125 × 120 × 132 cm

**Ifeoma U. Anyaeji - Eze Fuo eze anochie, (When a king leaves another replaces him – no condition is permanent)**
2022 - Plasto-yarning, Repurposed used non-biodegradable plastic bags (Plasto-yarns) bottles, wire mesh, twine, Bubblies - 150 × 435 × 18 cm