Marie-Jose Njoku-Obi

Marie-José is a contemporary visual artist based in Inglewood, California. Born in San Francisco in 1992, Marie has been exploring the multiplicity of the Black femme experience through painting, collage, and mixed media for over a decade. They employ surrealism as a tool for re-imagining the past and inspiring a previously indiscernible future and cite Rene Magritte, Mickalene Thomas and Kerry James Marshall, as well as their own Nigerian heritage as significant influences. Concepts for the work originate from an exploration of self combined with archival or cultural imagery. Defining their style as ‘Afro-Surrealistic’, Marie’s work reexamines the pre-conceived barriers of Black liberation.
Marie-José has participated in numerous group exhibitions, art markets, and festivals nationwide. Their paintings were featured in the Affordable Art Fair in New York and Aqua Art Miami in Miami Beach in 2022. They have also shown their work at galleries including Band of Vices in Los Angeles, Brea Gallery in Brea, CA, Soft Times Gallery and Marlowe Gallery in San Francisco and institutions such as the University of Central Missouri, the Compton Art Museum and the Museum of Science + Industry in Chicago. In 2022, Marie-Jose was an Artist in Res...

2025 (solo) Between Walls, I Find My Voice, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Los Angeles, CA

2026 (group) Dear Artists…Be Still, Band of Vices, Los Angeles, CA
2025 (group) Dear Artists…A Figurative Story, Band of Vices, Los Angeles, CA
2025 (group) Out of Bounds: Dis Place, Fullerton College Art Gallery, Fullerton, CA
2025 (group) Imagination as Resistance, Sovern LA, Los Angeles, CA
2025 (group) Cannibal Flower x Lucky Cat Labs, Los Angeles, CA
2025 (group) Iconic Visions: The Girlfriends Tribute Exhibition, The LINE Hotel, Los Angeles, CA
2025 (group) Trust Fall, John Wayne Airport, Santa Ana, CA
2025 (group) Sacred + Seen, Compton Art & History Museum, Compton, CA
2025 (group) The Black Woman Is God: We See Us, Marlowe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2024 (group) Forest Bathing, Ely Center for Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT
2024 (group) Reclamation, Pamela Walsh Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
2024 (group) Made in California, Brea Gallery, Brea, CA
2024 (group) The Fate of Eve, Goldenwest College, Huntington Beach, CA
2024 (group) h=em^2, University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO
2024 (group) The Big Softie, Soft Times Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2023 (group) Spectrum Gestalt, bG Gallery, Santa...