Ojo Agi Nigerian-Canadian, b. 1992
Ojo is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar bridging theory and practice to share stories of the Afro-diasporic experience. Her portrait drawings personalize the experience of identity, displacement, and belonging through a detailed study of emotion, tonal values, and materiality. Ojo enhances her artistry with thoughtful essays that educate, inspire, and engage diverse audiences.
Ojo Agi is a Nigerian-Canadian artist based in Toronto. Her research-based and socially-engaged practice is dedicated to knowledge translation and mobilization via the arts. Informed by postcolonial theory, gender studies, and narrative storytelling, Ojo uses figurative drawings to respond to Afro-diasporic subjectivities, feminist politics, and aesthetic beauty. Recent exhibitions include "The Chorus Is Speaking" at Campbell River Art Gallery (British Columbia) and "In the Middle, A Chimera" at Milieux Institute (Quebec). The drawings in these exhibitions responded to the history, politics, and theories of looking and being seen (otherwise known as "the gaze"), integrating discourse and strategies for self-preservation and mental wellness. She is a member of the collections committee for Global Africa and the Diaspora at the Art Gallery of Ontario and an advisory board member for Library of infinities, a digital platform that curates Afro-diasporic cultural knowledge. Ojo holds an MA in Women and Gender Studies from the University of Toronto and is currently working towards a PhD in Art History from Concordia University.
Ojo's work has also been licensed in 2021. The set design team for the Warner Brothers/Oprah Winfrey Network show “Kings of Napa” licensed three enlarged prints from “Daughters of Diaspora”.
