Biography
Cameroonian-British artist and scholar Adjani Okpu-Egbe has spent more than twenty-five years developing a distinctive practice that explores memory, knowledge, and the ways history is preserved, forgotten, and reclaimed. Shaped by lived experience across Africa, Europe, the Americas, and the United Kingdom, his work challenges dominant historical narratives while recovering overlooked histories from Africa and its global diasporas.
Material and Motif
Working across painting, assemblage and found materials, Okpu-Egbe transforms everyday objects into sites of cultural memory and resistance. His visual language is deeply shaped by his upbringing in a cocoa-growing, subsistence-farming family, fostering an enduring connection to the natural world. This manifests through recurring motifs, including archival bubble wrap, books, climate-resilient plants and his “manimals”: signature hybrid figures that dissolve the boundaries between human and beast, investigating the profound symbiosis between humanity, animals and nature. His work serves as a continuous exploration of deep socio-political themes, global resilience, and the enduring contributions of Black women to culture, education and social transformation.
Institutional Recognition
Okpu-Egbe’s work has garnered significant international recognition, most recently presented at the 36th Bienal de São Paulo.
His exhibitions span global institutions including:
ISCP (New York)
Tate Modern (London)
Museo Oscar Niemeyer (Curitiba)
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf)
Kunstverein (Braunschweig)
SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin)
Okpu-Egbe holds an MA in Contemporary Art Practice from the Royal College of Art, London.
Cameroonian-British artist and scholar Adjani Okpu-Egbe has spent more than twenty-five years developing a distinctive practice that explores memory, knowledge, and the ways history is preserved, forgotten, and reclaimed. Shaped by lived experience across Africa, Europe, the Americas, and the United Kingdom, his work challenges dominant historical narratives while recovering overlooked histories from Africa and its global diasporas.
Biography
Material and Motif
Working across painting, assemblage and found materials, Okpu-Egbe transforms everyday objects into sites of cultural memory and resistance. His visual language is deeply shaped by his upbringing in a cocoa-growing, subsistence-farming family, fostering an enduring connection to the natural world. This manifests through recurring motifs, including archival bubble wrap, books, climate-resilient plants and his “manimals”: signature hybrid figures that dissolve the boundaries between human and beast, investigating the profound symbiosis between humanity, animals and nature. His work serves as a continuous exploration of deep socio-political themes, global resilience, and the enduring contributions of Black women to culture, education and social transformation.
Institutional Recognition
Okpu-Egbe’s work has garnered significant international recognition, most recently presented at the 36th Bienal de São Paulo.
His exhibitions span global institutions including:
ISCP (New York)
Tate Modern (London)
Museo Oscar Niemeyer (Curitiba)
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf)
Kunstverein (Braunschweig)
SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin)
Okpu-Egbe holds an MA in Contemporary Art Practice from the Royal College of Art, London.