NADA 2025

NEW YORK

The artists each explore identity, memory, and perception through deeply introspective practices that span painting and interdisciplinary approaches. Though distinct in form and focus, their works converge around the fluid negotiation of self about history, culture, and inner life. Anne Adams, Damilola Onosowobo, and Joseph Aina each explore identity, memory, and perception through deeply introspective practices that span painting and interdisciplinary approaches. Though distinct in form and focus, their works converge around the fluid negotiation of self in relation to history, culture, and inner life.
Anne Adams draws from the rich sculptural heritage of Southern Kaduna, Nigeria, where she originates. Her interdisciplinary practice is grounded in postcolonial inquiry, using storytelling and speculative frameworks to navigate themes of migration, identity, and perception. By blending the human and nonhuman, figuration and abstraction, Adams positions her work in a liminal space—where past, present, and future co-exist beyond fixed boundaries.

... Damilola Onosowobo's paintings evolve from themes of nostalgia and everyday Nigerianness into a deeper interrogation of cultural dislocation and inherited silence. Informed by her identity as a Nigerian Yoruba woman, her current series moves from remembrance to questioning. Navigating the emotional terrain of confusion, grief, and resistance, her work dwells in the complexity of fractured heritage and the search for meaning in a postcolonial world.

Joseph approaches the landscape as a psychological mirror, using painting as a meditative process to explore emotional balance and perception. For him, the land is not a static subject but a space of introspection—one that reveals internal tension or stillness. His practice distills subtle emotional states and invites viewers to reflect on their own inner terrain, seeking clarity in the quiet spaces between self and world.

Together, the artists offer a multi-layered exploration of identity in flux—shaped by history, shaped by place, and always in motion.