born in 1990 in Isiukwuato (Nigeria)
Samuel Nnorom discovered his talent at the age of 9 years while assisting his father in his shoe workshop - where he started making life drawings of customers that visited the shop. He was also influenced by his mother’s tailoring workshop -as a kid who played with colourful fabrics with sewing needles and thread. He went further to develop this talent through apprenticeship, training, workshops, Exhibitions, art school and practice.
His works are inspired by the daily struggles and hustles that every individual goes through to survive. Nnorom fondly use Ankara fabrics as a medium to create his body of work as it lends its historical origin as something uncertain to Africa with its daily consumption among the African people for events, ceremonies, festivals, and domestic and religious activities. Nnorom also patronized the use of bubble forms in my work as a method to represent the uncertain nature of human conditions and the hope hoped for existence.
Using fabrics and fabric debris collected from tailor shops, and foams from furniture workshops become an anchor to supply hope to the audience in asking further questions to interrogate the nature of being and the abstraction of mind as it plays a huge role in the understanding of the aesthetics in his works.
Born in 1990, Isiukwuato, Abia state, Nigeria. Living and working in Nigeria.
Samuel holds a B. Aed (sculpture major) from the University of Jos and currently concluding an MA in sculpture from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Samuel won the National Art Competition organized by the National Gallery of Art in 2010 and 2012. He also won prizes in the 2016, 2017 and 2019 editions of the Life in My City Art Festival. He was the first prize recipient (leatherwork category) of the Icreate Africa 2019. Nnorom has received invitations to important workshops and group exhibitions, including the international art workshop by IICD at the United States Embassy, Abuja (2019), Young Contemporary 2021, published in an international magazine the UK (zine, issue 11, artist responding to issues) 2021, Cassirer Welz Award, Bag factory and Strauss & co South Africa 2021 and recipient of 2022 Royal Over-Sea League and Art House Residency London, Guest Artist Space award, Residency and fellowship by Shonibare Art Foundation 2022 and several others. He belongs to the New Nsukka School of Art and he is currently exploring Okirika clothes and Ankara fabric using bubble techniques as sculptural media while interrogating human experiences that relate to sociopolitical and economic issues.
Solo Exhibitions (selected)
2023
Samuel Nnorom, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy
Points of Departure, Art Mûr, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2022
Matters of Essential, a Salon Show at Ko Artspace, Lagos Nigeria
Voices of Textile, Gallery Marion Chauvy, Paris, France
Group Exhibitions (selected)
2023
Matérialités, Galerie Revel, Paris, France
Dark Matter, Kates-Ferri Projects, New York, USA
2022
Recycle Matter, Alexis Gallery Lagos, Nigeria
2019
One Environment Hybrid Art Exhibition, Ceddi plaza Abuja, Nigeria
Best work, Life in My City Art Festival, Enugu, Nigeria
2013
Splendid Art Exhibition, Faculty of law, University of Jos, Plateau, Nigeria
Awards
2019
First prize, Leatherworks, Icreate Africa, Landmark Centre Oniru Lagos, Nigeria
2013
Puscat Art Competition, 2nd Prize Winner, Plateau Nigeria
