Self Image Painting

Chidimma Nwafor is a Painter, born in Anambra, Nigeria in 1995. She earned her B.A degree in Fine and Applied Arts (painting major) from the University of Benin, Nigeria in 2017. She also had her professional training under a prolific painter called Mr. El-dragg Okwoju Leonard. Chidimma's works are made to satisfy her desire to be heard, felt, and understood. Growing up she found it a little bit challenging to express herself verbally and not being much of a talker, she developed an interest in making artworks as a means of expression which was quite easier than talking. Emotions trigger her creativity, she tries to connect and convey the soul’s feelings which include anxiety and fear retained in ones life as a result of growing up in a violent society, and how we aspire and hope for a better outcome. Her paintings as you can see are highly sentimental, they tell stories of what the majority of us go through, the unseen battles and the unsaid pains we only share to ourselves but in the words of Shakespeare ; “The miserable have no other medicine, but only hope”. Her works are mostly representational imagery of both male and female with different bodily and facial expressions of which she speaks volumes on the issue of emotions, self-transformation, and mental health. She explores realism-impressionism style of painting, her paintings involve the reflection of the background colours on the images that she paints. Chidimma was among the 10 finalists for the Next of Kin Annual juried art exhibition 2022, She qualified for the Top 100 artists for the Life in My city art competition/ juried exhibition which she participated in 2021, Chidimma has participated in several group exhibitions some of which are: An Opening Group Art Exhibition; Moriri Art Gallery, Port Harcourt(2020), Inside Life’ Art exhibition, Lagos (2020), Pop-up Art salon, Rivers,(2020), amongst others. She has featured in SMEPEAKS Magazine titled “7 NIGERIAN FEMALE PAINTERS ROCKING THE MALE-DOMINATED PROFESSION STYLISHLY” (2020). She has also featured in 1 Human Journal as an Artist of the Week (7-14 July) (2020), She was also featured in “Black Bodies, Gray Matters” Magazine published by Ake Festival in the year 2019. Chidimma currently resides in Lagos, Nigeria, where she works as a full-time artist.