Victoria-Idongesit Udondian

The Armory Show:

Victoria-Idongesit Udondian September 4-7, 2025 | Booth P44

kó is pleased to present Victoria-Idongesit Udondian at The Armory Show, September 4-7, 2025, Booth P44. This solo presentation debuts Udondian’s newest series, After the Last Supper (2024-2025). Victoria-Idongesit Udondian (b. 1982, Nigeria) works across textiles, sculpture, installation, performance, photography, video, and, most recently, ceramics. Her practice is driven by an interest in textiles and the ways design shapes identity, drawing on the histories and tacit meanings embedded in everyday materials. Trained in tailoring, painting, sculpture, and new genres, she creates large-scale, interdisciplinary projects with textiles at their core, often informed by her experiences growing up in Nigeria. Udondian’s work interrogates the postcolonial condition within an increasingly globalized world, examining the intersections of migration, labour, and global trade. In this new body of work, Udondian interrogates Africa’s colonial history, evolving cultural identity, and its shifting relationship with China in a postcolonial context. Against the backdrop of China’s expanding investments in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in natural resources, Udondian asks: Is this a new form of colonialism? A modern “scramble for Africa”? Or could it signal a reorientation toward new alliances beyond former colonial powers?

Press Release

VICTORIA-IDONGEST UDONDIAN & LIZZ JOHNSON

ART & THOUGHT CONVERSATIONS
with Victoria-Idongesit Udondian and Lizz Johnson

Okrika Reclaimed – Mapping an Extensive Practice

Okrika Reclaimed is a site-specific art installation that takes place in Kantamanto, Accra, Ghana. One of the world’s largest second-hand clothing markets, it also serves as a massive open-air dump for textile waste, significantly impacting the local environment. Through collaboration with the Foundation for Contemporary Art-Ghana and Revival Earth, a textile upcycling NGO and fabric lab in Kantamanto, Okrika Reclaimed engages the community in workshops and cleanup efforts. The reclaimed textile waste is repurposed into site-specific outdoor installations and performance in the market.

Okrika Reclaimed: Mapping an Expansive Practice

Okrika Reclaimed is a site-specific art installation that takes place in Kantamanto, Accra, Ghana, one of the world’s largest secondhand clothing markets, which also serves as a massive open-air dump for textile waste, significantly impacting the local environment. Through collaboration with the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Ghana and Revival Earth, a textile upcycling NGO and fabric lab in Kantamanto, Okrika Reclaimed engages the community in workshops and cleanup efforts. The reclaimed textile waste is repurposed into site-specific outdoor installations and performance in the market.

How Can I Be Nobody: SCREENING + BOOK LAUNCH

How Can I Be Nobody: Victoria-Idongesit Udondian
Monograph by Hirmer Publishers
2024
English
128 Pages
Hardcover, 128 pages | 60 color plates | 7.09 x 9.84 |

SCREENING + BOOK LAUNCH

The Distinguished Visiting Scholars program, College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Buffalo (UB) and Smack Mellon, New York City is delighted to host the launch of Victoria-Idongesit Udondian’s monograph, How Can I Be Nobody (Hirmer Publishers, 2024), edited by Sylvester Ogbechie, Ph.D. The publication follows her 2022 solo exhibition in Smack Mellon’s main gallery space, in New York City, featuring a site-specific installation that combines woven textiles, sculptures, and sound.

The event will take place as follows:

Buffalo Event: Date: Wednesday, April 24th Time: 7:00 – 9:00 PM Location: Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center 341 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY 14202

NYC Event: Date: Friday, April 26th Time: 6:30 PM Location: Smack Mellon 92 Plymouth St, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Bronx Calling, Aim Biennial,Bronx Museum, New York, 2021- 2022

Bronx Calling, Aim Biennial,Bronx Museum, New York, 2021- 2022