Edozie Anedu Nigeria, b. 1997
Edozie Anedu is a painter based in Benin City, Nigeria, who explores popular culture, social issues and his personal experiences through oils, acrylics and pastels.
His paintings incorporate elemental forms that verge on the abstract, with figures and symbols drawn with rapid, expressive brush strokes. His work often includes cultural references that span music, fashion and entertainment.
Edozie Anedu completed an artist residency in 2020 with the Arthouse Foundation in Lagos. His residency project, Landscape mode, is a play on the genre of landscape painting. Imagining different urban landscapes scenes around the islands of Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Lekki, his abstract renderings are created from elemental lines. His vibrant color palette, with saturated hues that suggest mood as inspired by social media photoshop filters, depict an otherworldly atmosphere. Edozie began creating this series while in residency during the coronavirus lockdown in 2020. The scenes are void of the busy social interaction of normal daily life, and instead focus on the solitude and spirit of the city and its architecture. He inscribes pointed phrases atop of the paintings.
Born in 1997, Edozie is currently finishing his bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Benin. His first solo exhibition, Mistakes I Chose to Keep, was held at 16/16 in Lagos in December 2019. Edozie's work was also included in the group exhibition Material Identities at The Melrose Gallery, Johannesburg in 2019. His work is included in the group exhibition The Medium is the Message at Unit London in 2020.
