kó: Available Works 2025

Eva Obodo is a sculptor who uses charcoal and thread to explore themes of survival, resilience, and adaptation. Obodo transforms charcoal—often considered devoid of aesthetic value—into intricate compositions, while his fiber art involves crafting cylindrical forms and bold, thread-like wave lines. His tying and binding techniques draw from the Nsukka School’s “Igwebuike” idiom, which emphasizes strength through unity. Obodo’s recent work focuses on scarcity, endurance, and renewal. His artworks serve as metaphors to critique political systems, examine social relationships, and address economic struggles while engaging with religious symbolism and cultural heritage.

Eva Obodo earned his MFA and PhD from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he is now a professor and former Head of the Fine and Applied Arts department. Obodo’s work has been featured at the Osaka Triennale (2001), DAK’ART Biennale (2002), Art Dubai (2023), 1:54 Marrakech (2024), and the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2025). His solo exhibitions with kó and Arthouse Contemporary in Lagos include Recent Works (2021), Ngwugwu (2019), and Line.by.Line (2015).  In 2025, he was selected as a finalist for the Norval Foundation Sovereign African Art Prize.

Ozioma Onuzulike creates large-scale ceramic works, resembling tapestries, that are meticulously crafted from thousands of ceramic palm kernel beads and natural palm kernel shells. He explores the aesthetic and symbolic nature of clay-working, adopting a laborious process to achieve unique colors and textures in the clay, oxides, and glazes. Each ceramic undergoes bisque-firing and is dipped into ash glazes before being adorned with recycled glass. The pieces are woven with copper wire and allude to the West African textile traditions of Akwete, Aso Oke, and Kente. Onuzulike’s works serve as metaphors for the historical and sociological roots of turmoil in Africa. Onuzulike considers the historical significance of beads as a symbol of currency in West Africa during the slave trade and its contemporary association with social status and wealth.

Ozioma Onuzulike (b. 1972, Achi, Nigeria) is an art professor and the Director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. In 2024, Onuzulike was listed as a finalist for the the seventh edition of Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, which was exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo. In 2025, he was selected as a finalist for the Norval Foundation Sovereign African Art Prize. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Anthropology and Archeology, University of Cambridge, Princeton University Art Museum, the Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Crocker Art Museum, Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, and the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art, Lagos.