Mixed media artist, Donna Duke has exhibited her debut solo exhibition titled ‘Show Me Who You Are’.
The visual arts exhibition which features 27 portraits of black subjects, m Artist ale and female on red, gold leaf embossed, black and white coloured canvasses, focuses on the stories of 20-something year olds whom the artist attest “have lived lives as colourful as any who has spent over five or more decades on earth.”
‘Show Me Who You Are’ is Duke’s way of shifting attention from her usual self-reflective works to that of her peers, and passerbys who are living lives “as vivid and complex as hers”.
Born in Texas, Houston, US, and raised between Lagos Nigeria, and England, Duke earned a BA in Arts and Cultural Enterprise, from the Central St Martins, University of Arts, London, 2024.
Her artistic journey, though precedes her masters certificate, as she has she has been creating and exhibiting works since 2020. Her works draw from historical and contemporary accounts of the Black people experience, creating powerful portrayals of emotional depth within Black portraiture. Delving into themes of identity, culture and the Black experience, Duke capture moments of idealized emotion, offering a multilayered commentary on human existence.
Duke’s artworks has featured in several group exhibitions in and outside Nigeria, including Black and Gold: M & C Saatchi and Harrods Gallery, London (2022); I Am & Nothing Else: Affinity Art Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria (2022); A Roomful of Stories: Kokopelli Gallery Inauguration, Lagos Nigeria (2021); Erudite: Alliance Francais, Lagos, Nigeria (2021); Noire Exhibition: Were House, Lagos, Nigeria (2020), and Feminism In Nigeria: Women In Art, Bogobiri House, Lagos, Nigeria (2020).
She is currently lives and practices her art in Lagos.
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