Ngozi-Omeje Ezema: Condition Make Crayfish Bend
Upcoming exhibition
Overview
kó is pleased to present Condition Make Crayfish Bend, the second solo exhibition at the gallery of Ngozi-Omeje Ezema.
Ngozi-Omeje Ezema (b. 1979, Nsukka, Nigeria) creates sculptural installations composed of hundreds of suspended terracotta fragments that coalesce into amorphous vessel-like forms. Ezema’s practice reconsiders inherited traditions of pottery, transforming the vessel from an object historically tied to domestic and utilitarian function into a site symbolizing memory, embodiment, and human experience.
Ezema works with fire clay and coal-shell excavated from the Iva Valley coal mines in Enugu, incorporating materials embedded with the industrial and environmental histories of southeastern Nigeria. Individual ceramic elements are connected with translucent fishing wire and suspended as free-floating or wall-mounted installations that appear at once fragile and monumental. Her terracotta fragments are fired at high temperatures using reduction firing techniques, producing surfaces marked by tonal variation. Drawing on the forms of vessels, leaves, and the material presence of the earth itself, Ezema explores the body as a physical and symbolic container. In pottery, vessels have traditionally been described with personifying terms to identify their anatomy, such as mouth, neck, shoulder, belly, or foot. Informed by biblical conceptions of human beings as vessels, Ezema extends these metaphors as symbols of spiritual containment.
Using her personal experiences as a point of departure, her work addresses issues relating to identity, family, and womanhood. The burdens that women bear in relationships, their physical attributes as well as experiences that define their position in society are symbolically wrapped around the physical and functional attributes of a vase. For the artist, the leaf motif represents a state of being, a transient element whose materiality symbolically dramatizes rites of passage. As Ezema explains, “The leaf represents aspects of tenderness in women that is often taken for granted. The leaf is equally suggestive of the long suffering that women undergo in relationships. When you look at the colour of the leaves in my work, they give the impression that the leaves have dried, yet they still retain their beauty”.
Central to Ezema’s practice is a process of refinement, rupture, and reconfiguration. Carefully formed vessels are broken apart and reassembled into suspended installations that reconsider the physical structure and symbolic function of ceramics. Fragments are meticulously positioned in shifting arrangements that transform solid walls of pottery into floating forms, where acts of breaking become generative rather than destructive. The exhibition’s title, Condition Make Crayfish Bend, speaks to the virtues and forms of resilience that emerge through adversity. Referencing a well-known proverbial expression in Nigeria, the title reflects on adaptation as a strategy of survival and a source of strength. Working from Nsukka, Ezema draws inspiration from the region’s spoken idioms and enduring craft traditions, considering how cultural memory and communal knowledge are carried through material forms.
About the Artist
Ngozi-Omeje Ezema serves as a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where she teaches ceramics. She received an MFA in Ceramics from University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 2009, and a BA in Ceramics from the same institution in 2005. Ezema’s solo exhibition, Boundless Vases, was held at Pinathotek der Modern in Munich, Germany in 2025. She was included in the group exhibition Archives and Memories at Centre for for Contemporary Art, Lagos in 2025, and in Nigeria Imaginary at Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), Benin. Her monumental sculptural installation, Togetherness, was permanently installed in the ceramics gallery at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, in 2025.
In 2022, Ezema participated in the Dakar Biennale, alongside a solo show, Fire Made Me, part of the OFF of the Dakar Biennale. In 2022, Ezema was featured by kó as a Special Project at Abu Dhabi Art. Ezema’s first solo exhibition at kó was held at kó in Lagos in 2021. Her solo exhibition, Connecting Deep, was held at Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) Lagos in 2018. kó has presented Exema’s work at India Art Fair, Abu Dhabi Art, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Untitled Art Fair Miami Beach, 1-54 New York, 1-54 Marrakech, and Art X Lagos.
Ezema won the Foundation Blachére Award at the Biennale of Sculpture Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in 2021. She won the High Excellence Award at the Cheongju International Craft Biennale in South Korea in 2019, and received Honorary Mention at the Korea International Ceramics Biennale, Icheon World Ceramics Centre (South Korea) in 2019. She won Outstanding Concept at the National Art Competition (Nigeria) in 2015, and Overall Winner at Life in My City competition (Nigeria) in 2014. She has participated in artist residencies at Muawiya’s Thread, Tunis (2022); Biennale of Sculpture Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (2021); Centre for Contemporary Art/ Trianglar Art Trust, Lagos (2010); Sevshoon Art Centre, Seattle (2010); International Women Art (IWAWO), Accra (2009); and Aftershave/Triangular Art Trusts, Jos (2008).
Her works are included in the collections of Pinathotek der Modern (Germany), High Museum of Art (USA), National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Fondation H (Madagascar), and Proyectos Publicos (Mexico), among others.
Ezema works with fire clay and coal-shell excavated from the Iva Valley coal mines in Enugu, incorporating materials embedded with the industrial and environmental histories of southeastern Nigeria. Individual ceramic elements are connected with translucent fishing wire and suspended as free-floating or wall-mounted installations that appear at once fragile and monumental. Her terracotta fragments are fired at high temperatures using reduction firing techniques, producing surfaces marked by tonal variation. Drawing on the forms of vessels, leaves, and the material presence of the earth itself, Ezema explores the body as a physical and symbolic container. In pottery, vessels have traditionally been described with personifying terms to identify their anatomy, such as mouth, neck, shoulder, belly, or foot. Informed by biblical conceptions of human beings as vessels, Ezema extends these metaphors as symbols of spiritual containment.
Using her personal experiences as a point of departure, her work addresses issues relating to identity, family, and womanhood. The burdens that women bear in relationships, their physical attributes as well as experiences that define their position in society are symbolically wrapped around the physical and functional attributes of a vase. For the artist, the leaf motif represents a state of being, a transient element whose materiality symbolically dramatizes rites of passage. As Ezema explains, “The leaf represents aspects of tenderness in women that is often taken for granted. The leaf is equally suggestive of the long suffering that women undergo in relationships. When you look at the colour of the leaves in my work, they give the impression that the leaves have dried, yet they still retain their beauty”.
Central to Ezema’s practice is a process of refinement, rupture, and reconfiguration. Carefully formed vessels are broken apart and reassembled into suspended installations that reconsider the physical structure and symbolic function of ceramics. Fragments are meticulously positioned in shifting arrangements that transform solid walls of pottery into floating forms, where acts of breaking become generative rather than destructive. The exhibition’s title, Condition Make Crayfish Bend, speaks to the virtues and forms of resilience that emerge through adversity. Referencing a well-known proverbial expression in Nigeria, the title reflects on adaptation as a strategy of survival and a source of strength. Working from Nsukka, Ezema draws inspiration from the region’s spoken idioms and enduring craft traditions, considering how cultural memory and communal knowledge are carried through material forms.
About the Artist
Ngozi-Omeje Ezema serves as a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where she teaches ceramics. She received an MFA in Ceramics from University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 2009, and a BA in Ceramics from the same institution in 2005. Ezema’s solo exhibition, Boundless Vases, was held at Pinathotek der Modern in Munich, Germany in 2025. She was included in the group exhibition Archives and Memories at Centre for for Contemporary Art, Lagos in 2025, and in Nigeria Imaginary at Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), Benin. Her monumental sculptural installation, Togetherness, was permanently installed in the ceramics gallery at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, in 2025.
In 2022, Ezema participated in the Dakar Biennale, alongside a solo show, Fire Made Me, part of the OFF of the Dakar Biennale. In 2022, Ezema was featured by kó as a Special Project at Abu Dhabi Art. Ezema’s first solo exhibition at kó was held at kó in Lagos in 2021. Her solo exhibition, Connecting Deep, was held at Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) Lagos in 2018. kó has presented Exema’s work at India Art Fair, Abu Dhabi Art, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Untitled Art Fair Miami Beach, 1-54 New York, 1-54 Marrakech, and Art X Lagos.
Ezema won the Foundation Blachére Award at the Biennale of Sculpture Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in 2021. She won the High Excellence Award at the Cheongju International Craft Biennale in South Korea in 2019, and received Honorary Mention at the Korea International Ceramics Biennale, Icheon World Ceramics Centre (South Korea) in 2019. She won Outstanding Concept at the National Art Competition (Nigeria) in 2015, and Overall Winner at Life in My City competition (Nigeria) in 2014. She has participated in artist residencies at Muawiya’s Thread, Tunis (2022); Biennale of Sculpture Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (2021); Centre for Contemporary Art/ Trianglar Art Trust, Lagos (2010); Sevshoon Art Centre, Seattle (2010); International Women Art (IWAWO), Accra (2009); and Aftershave/Triangular Art Trusts, Jos (2008).
Her works are included in the collections of Pinathotek der Modern (Germany), High Museum of Art (USA), National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Fondation H (Madagascar), and Proyectos Publicos (Mexico), among others.
