Emma Odumade

EMMA ODUMADE WAS BORN IN 2000 IN LAGOS, NIGERIA. HE LIVES AND WORKS IN LAGOS.

A self-taught artist, Emma Odumade’s practice revolves around hyperrealistic drawings layered with collage and the inclusion of vibrant painted elements. His compositions bring together archival images, cartoons, sketches, concert tickets, and Benin bronzes — all markers of generational transmission and of ongoing cultural, social, and environmental transformations. Within these visual layers, the painted figures embody the present, while the collaged fragments rekindle a shared and intimate memory.

These visual constellations weave a living, ever-evolving memory. The artist thus questions the transformation of shared spaces and how these shifts impact social life, our relationship with others, and our environment. His use of black tea symbolizes both the present — reflecting Odumade’s interest in botany — and the notions of beginnings and soul: what lies within but cannot be physically revealed.

Through this multi-layered approach, he invites viewers to reflect on how identity is formed, remembered, and reinvented over time. Odumade’s compositions are meditations on existence — on what endures and what changes, on the visible and invisible traces each person carries within.

Emma Odumade’s works have been presented at international art fairs such as Art X Lagos (Nigeria) and 1-54 New York (USA). They have also been featured in institutional exhibitions at the African Artists’ Foundation in Lagos, the Kansas City Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Kunsthal KAdE Museum in the Netherlands. The artist held his first solo exhibition in Paris in October 2022 at AFIKARIS Gallery.