Luke Agada, (b.1992, Lagos) is a Nigerian artist who currently lives and works in Chicago. He holds an MFA in Painting and drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Agada also has a Doctor in Veterinary Medicine from the Federal University of Agriculture. Agada’s paintings of disembodied figures and dream-like grounds reference identity transformations of the postmodern human where both time and space produce complex bodies of difference. The past and presence, the other and the self reflect the ambiguity of our identity within post-structuralist theory. Agada’s work has been inspired by the postcolonial writings of Homi Bhabha, Edward Said and literary works by Chinua Achebe and Chimamanada Ngozi Adichie. Luke Agada’s inspiration continues to be a symbiosis of research, critical theory, and history to examine globalisation, power relations and culture.
Group Exhibitions include Where The Wild Roses Grow, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Schloss Görne, Berlin, Germany (2023); Unusual suspects, African Artist’s Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria (2021); Collective Reflection: Contemporary African and Diasporic Expressions of a New Vanguard, Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana (2020); Arkane, Art Fair, Casablanca, Morocco (2019); Lagos for all, Lagos, Nigeria (2017)
Highlights and Collections
In 2022 Luke Agada has been awarded the Helen Frankenthaler Award by School of the Art Institute of Chicago (USA) and the Janet and Russel Doubleday Award by the Art Students league of New York (USA). Agada has also received the George and Ann Siegel Award in 2021, the Dean’s grant from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (USA) in 2021; the Raise our voices, The Voice Residency by Voice HQ in 2021 and the Global warming international art prize, by Art Impact International, New York (USA) in 2020.