ONYEKA IGWE

b. 1986, London, UK

Lives and works in London, UK

PhD (practice based), University of the Arts London, 2016-2020

MA Documentary Practice, Goldsmiths College, 2010-2011

BSc Politics, Bristol University, 2005-2008

SELECTED SOLO/DUO EXHIBITIONS

2024
history is a living weapon in yr hand, Peer, London, UK
The Miracle on George Green, Arcadia Missa, London, UK
history is a living weapon in yr hand, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham, UK

2023
A Repertoire of Protest (No Dance, No Palaver), MoMA PS1, New York, US

2022
The Miracle on George Green, High Line, New York, US
Dancing With The Archive, S-L-I-C-E, Berlin, DE

2021
The real story is what’s in that room, Mercer Union, Toronto, CA
a so-called archive, LUX, London, UK

2019
There Were Two Brothers, Jerwood Arts, London, UK

2018
Corrections (with Aliya Pabani), Trinity Square Video, Toronto, CA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024
Conversations, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK
Liberation in Four Movements, Art Museum University of Toronto, Toronto, CA
Nigeria Imaginary, Nigeria Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, IT
Ritual in Transfigured Time, Netwerk Aalst, Aalst, BE
Lagos Biennial, Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, NG

2023
Lagos, Peckham, Repeat: Pilgrimage To The Lakes, South London Gallery, London, UK
THE ARCHIVE AS… , Kunstverein München, Munich, DE
Unschöne Museen, ETH Zurich, CH
anywhere in the universe, The Common Guild, Glasgow, UK

2022
Turn up, Time of my life, go up in fire, Display, Prague, CZ
Living with Ghosts, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, US
Echoes,  Haus der Kunst, Munich, DE

2021
Archives of Resistance, Neue Galerie,  Innsbruck, AT
Reconfigured, Timothy Taylor, New York, US

2020
New Labor Movements, McEvoy Foundation, San Francisco, US

2019
[POST] Colonial Bodies I & II, MUNTREF and CC Matienzo, Buenos Aires, AR

2018    
World Cup!, Articule, Montreal, CA
there’s something in the conversation that is more interesting than the finality of (a title), The Showroom, London, UK

2017
Arguments, Cordova Gallery, Vienna, AT

2016
Multiplex, Nuit Blanche, Toronto, CA

2015
In the Shadow of the Rainbow, Sunday Drive Projects, Warkworth, CA

SELECTED SCREENINGS/FILM FESTIVALS

2024
When Rain Clouds Gather 3, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, CH
Archival Reflections, Tate Britain, London, UK

2023
Modern Mondays, MoMA, New York, US

2022
Media City Film Festival, Windsor, CA
Open City Documentary Festival, London, UK

2021
Third Horizon Film Festival, Miami, US
8 yams, 8 small yams, 8 eggs, a cow and a cockerel, FORMA, London, UK
The Loose Ends of Empire: Unforgetting Colonialism, Block Cinema-Northwestern University, US
Repatriation and Ruin, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, US

2020
KW Production Series, Berlin, DE
International Competition, Montreal International Documentary Festival, CA
Ammodo Tiger Short Competition, International Film Festival Rotterdam, NL
Competition program, European Media Arts Festival, Osnabrück, DE
Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, BD
Collective Hum, Barbican, London, UK
No Archive Can Restore You, Artists in Cinema Commission, Various, UK
Experimenta program, London Film Festival, London, UK

2019
Berwick New Cinema Competition, Berwick Film Festival, UK
Remnants of a Dream, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Michigan, US
Notes on Being, Images Festival, Toronto, CA
Essay Film Festival, London, UK
Bright Futures, International Film Festival Rotterdam, NL

2018
Smithsonian African American film festival, Washington, US
Not Sorry: Feminist Experimental Film from the 1970s to Today, NW Film Center, Oregon, US
I’m Not Who You Think I’m Not meets Speisekino, ZK/U, Berlin Biennale, DE
No Dance, No Palaver, LUX: New Work, London, UK
International Film Festival Rotterdam, NL

2017
Black Shorts, ICA, London, UK
Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Fest, MY
Black Radical Imagination, GSA & ICA, Glasgow and London, UK

2016
Hamburg International ShortFilmFestival, DE
Edinburgh Artist Moving Image Festival, UK

2015
Dance Film Festival UK, London, UK
Internationale Kurtzfilmtage Wintherthur, CH

RESIDENCIES and ASSOCIATE PROGRAMMES

2023-25
Practitioner in Residence, University of the Arts London, UK

2021-22
The School of Sonic Memory, Alexandra, Athens, Marseille, FR

2019
MAN Museum/Sardinia Film Commission Artists Residency, Nuoro, IT
British School at Athens Residency, Athens, GR

2017-2018
FLAMIN Fellowship, London, UK
Holding Space – The Showroom, London, UK

2014
Oberhausen Seminar, Oberhausen Film Festival, DE

PUBLICATIONS

2025
The Making of June Givanni’s Pan African Archive, Lawrence Wishart (Upcoming)

2023
Some Scenes from the Archive (chapter in edited volume), Amsterdam University Press

2022
Interjection Calendar (guest editor), Montez Press

2020
Being Close To, With or Amongst, The Feminist Review, Summer
Hiraeth, or Queering Time in Archives Otherwise (with JD Stokely), Alphaville Journal of Film and Screen

2019
Media, Winter

2018
Feature Interview with June Givanni, MIRAJ Vol.6, Spring

2016
Migrating Bodies, NON Periodical Vol. 1, Spring

2015
Rearviews, C Magazine, June

AWARDS and PRIZES

2022-2024
Max Mara Artist Prize for Women (Nominated)

2022
Jarman Award (Nominated)
Foundwork Artist Prize

2021
Foundwork Artist Prize

2020
Fellowship in Experimental Film, Arts Foundation

2019
New Cinema Award, Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (DE); Arts Council Collection, London (UK); Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf (DE)