A-ARTs: Ezema's 'Condition Make Crayﬁsh Bend' highlights identity, womanhood

'Alignment' (ceramics, acrylic, monofilament, fishing line, metal, 150x90x45cm, dated 2026) by Ngozi-Omeje Ezema

By Ola Alowoloke

WITH a theme built on Nigerian mother tongue usage of English language, artist, Ngozi-Omeje Ezema exposes woman as a victimized member of the larger society.

The artist's solo art exhibition titled Condition Make Crayﬁsh Bend opens June 6-August 22, 2026, at kó Gallery, 36 Cameron Road, Ikoyi, Lagos. The exhibition, which is Ezema's second solo exhibition at the gallery, addresses issues relating to identity, family, and womanhood.

In its gallery statement, kó says the artist's theme draws on the forms of vessels, leaves, and the material presence of the earth itself, to explore the body as a physical and symbolic container. The statement notes that in pottery, vessels have traditionally been described with personifying terms to identify their anatomy, such as mouth, neck, shoulder, belly, or foot. According to kò, Ezema is inspired by biblical conceptions of human beings as vessels, and extends the metaphors as symbols of spiritual containment.

There is something personal about the theme as well. "Using her personal experiences as a point of departure, her work addresses issues relating to identity, family, and womanhood," the gallery discloses. "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." In fact, for the artist, the leaf motif represents a state of being, a transient element whose materiality symbolically dramatizes rites of passage.

“The leaf represents aspects of tenderness in women that is often taken for granted," Ezema explains. "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.”

kó explains that the title, Condition Make Crayﬁsh Bend, speaks to the virtues and forms of resilience that emerge through adversity. The gallery described it a well-known proverbial expression in Nigeria, which the artist references, reﬂecting on adaptation as a strategy of survival and a source of strength.

Excerpts from kó's statement: "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."

Ezema (b. 1979), 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.

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