Abuja-based visual artist and AMA grantee Amarachi Kelechi Odimba is currently in Arusha, Tanzania to complete a residency at Warm Heart Art Tanzania from December 12 to 30, 2015.
Ms. Odimba is a visual artist and art teacher with a particular interest in mixed media art. After studying Environmental Geology, she began to work with waste, repurposed and outdated materials in painting as a means of exploring her interests in societal and environmental issues. Engaging both conventional and unconventional media and techniques, she tries to analyse pressing issues of our time while investigating the universal themes of identity, sexuality and ecology. She has been exhibiting her work in Nigeria and working as a creative art instructor since 2012. She currently teaches and coordinates the creative art program at the Institut Français in Abuja.
During her residency, Ms. Odimba intends to work on a project named ‘EDUFUNCTION’, which looks at on the functionality of education in Africa. Her intention is to portray the history and influences of indigenous, colonial and contemporary education and the need to develop a curriculum that suits, functions and projects us as a people. Having begun her work in her home country, she wishes to study how these influences have unfolded in East Africa. Her residency will conclude with an exhibition.
AMA wishes Amarachi safe travels and a fruitful residency!
