Suowari, age 30, has been an artist since she was a child, practicing professionally for over a decade. She studied Fine Art at the University of Port Harcourt in southern Nigeria, and has participated in group exhibitions globally and had solo exhibitions in Miami and Nigeria.
Her work has been featured in several publications including Chukwuemeka Ben Bosah’s book, “The Art of Nigerian Women,” which celebrates female artists from the Nigerian diaspora.
This June she launched a touring exhibition of her new body of work entitled “Now I Wear Myself.” In her new exhibition, She considers the fetishization and condemnation of aesthetics associated with indigenous Nigerian cultures, and tries to destigmatize subjects that are often taboo in the country, like depression, grief and shame.
Suowari’s work is as motivational as it is aesthetically pleasing. Her huge creations share a message of hope and empowerment; their intention is to allow Nigerians to embrace vulnerabilities — encouraging them to discuss issues, including mental health, that she says aren’t in common discourse in Nigerian society.
Suowari said that her vast portraits represent the faceless, voiceless masses; she wants to tell the stories of the minority and ostracized individuals to give them strength.
“I believe that everybody was created with a particular blueprint. It’s like a puzzle — you’re supposed to be a certain kind of way to fit into the puzzle for better things to happen,” she explained. “We can’t make up this beautiful picture if everybody’s the same.”
