Image: Whatever Brings Light, 2024, Oil on canvas, 165 x 136 cm, 65 x 53 1/2 in. Image above: Tonia Nneji, A Gathering of Broken Hearted, 2022, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 60 x 72 in, 152.4 x 182.9 cm. Copyright of the artist.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria to a line of traditional carvers and masquerade carriers, Nneji commemorates these long-lived practices with her approach to textile cultures, celebrating the importance of fabric and its cultural meanings in African societies, especially from her Indigenous Igbo tribe where fabric is seen as a celebratory item. All of her characters are clothed in this specific fabric: usually plain cotton with printed images of men or catholic saints or of church symbols and typically worn for religious functions.
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