Yagazie Emezi is a multidisciplinary artist in photography, textile and sculpture focused on unearthing global patterns of inequity from an indigenous point of view. Her practice is informed by her extensive background in photojournalism covering global issues around corruption, environmental failure, and the extension of colonial policies into current international relations.
Yagazie’s recent works are rooted in stories of identity and cultural preservation, integrating traditional motifs and practices with contemporary artistic techniques. Art portfolio available upon request.
Yagazie is a recipient of the 2018 inaugural Creative Bursary Award from Getty Images and a 2018 grant from the U.S Consulate General in Lagos for her photographs addressing the reality of sexual violence against women and the vulnerable young in Nigeria. Yagazie was among the 2019 inaugural artists selected for Kehinde Wiley's art residency at Black Rock, Senegal, was 2019 nominee of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative and the first black African woman to photograph for National Geographic Magazine. In 2020, she was awarded The National Geographic Storytelling Grant to complete ‘Another Tale By Moonlight’. She was shortlisted for the 2023 Contemporary African Photography Prize and the German Peace Prize for Photography. Yagazie has exhibited her works around the world in various galleries and museums including an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, ‘New Photography’ 2023.
AWARDS/SHORTLISTS
2024 Moving Narrratives Fellowship Award by Prince Claus (shortlist)
2023 The Contemporary African Photography Prize (shortlist)
2023 German Peace Prize for Photography (shortlist), Museumsquartier Osnabrück
2020 Creative Residency Community Fund, Adobe
2020 Exploration Grant, National Geographic
2019 Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative (shortlist)
2018 U.S Consulate Grant, The United States Consulate General Lagos
2018 Emerging Photographer Grant, Getty Images
2017 Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of New Mexico, African Studies Department
EXHIBITIONS
2024 World UnSeen, by CanonUK, Somerset House, London, UK.
2024 Megacities, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia.
2023 New Photography 2023, The Museum of Modern Art, NY, USA
2023 Lean On Me, Kó Art Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria
2023 German Peace Prize For Photography, Museumsquartier Osnabrück, Germany
2023 A Wa Nibi: Archiving the Queer Experience of the Past and Present for the Future, Òbòdò in collaboration with Kampabnagel, Lagos, Nigeria
2023 Reverie, DADA Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria
2022 The New Black Vanguard, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
2022 Dakar Biennale, Dakar, Senegal
2021 Self-Addressed, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, LA, USA
2021 The Rising Exhibition, Alara, Lagos, Nigeria
2021 Ideologies, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
2021 I am Not a Goddess ... Unless I Say I am, Amar Singh Gallery
2020 Just Pictures, Projects + Gallery, Saint Louis, USA
2019 African Biennale of Photography, Bamako, Mali
2019 The Female Lens, Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York
2019 Relearning Bodies, Hamwe Festival, Kigali, Rwanda (solo show)
2019 HERE, Alliance Francais, Lagos, Nigeria (solo show)
2018 Present and Forgotten, Vlisco&Co, Art Twenty One, Lagos, Nigeria
2018 Festival Pil’ours, Saint Gilles Croix de Vie, France
2017 Insider/Outsider, Women Photograph Photoville, NYC
2017 Body Talk, Refinery29 Photoville, NYC
2017 Re-picturing a Continent, Alliance Francais, Nairobi, Kenya
2016 LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph, Charlottesville, USA
2016 The Everyday Projects at FotoIstanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
TALKS
2024 Take Your Photography to the Next Level, Africa No Filter
2023 Building Your Portfolio, Museum of the African Diaspora MoAD.
2023 Perspective, National Geographic Storytelling Seminar
2023 Building Your Portfolio, Museum of the African Diaspora MoAD
2022 A Gaze, Ever Young, In Conversation with James Barnor, In partnership with MOMA, ArtX
2021 Expanding Your Vision, Everyday Projects
2021 Emancipative Bodies, Ray Festival, Germany
2020 Exploring Identity & Culture Through Art, CreativeLive
2020 Beyond Criticism To Action: Pushing The African Visual Identity Discourse Forward, Homecoming & Browns
2019 Environmental Changes & Risks To Women's Health, University of Global Health Equity, Rwanda
2019 Chronic Conditions: Knowing, Seeing & Healing the Body in Global Africa, University of Kansas
2018 Fast Forward: Women in Photography. Lagos Photo Festival. Lagos, Nigeria
2018 Guest Lecture, Parsons School of Design. New York, USA
2017 Rethinking Creation in the Digital Age, FCAEA & Everyday Africa, Nairobi, Kenya
2016 Narratives Through Photography, Social Media Week Lagos
2015 Limitations to Exploring Photography Off the Streets, Rele Gallery. Lagos, Nigeria
RESIDENCIES
2024 Jnane Tamsna Creatives in Residence Programme, Marrakech, Morocco.
2019 Black Rock Artist Residency, Dakar, Senegal
PUBLISHED WORKS
2024 How Is Climate Change Affecting Teenagers?, The New York Times Magazine
2024 How Queer and Nonconformist Creators Are Redefining What It Means To Be
Nigerian, National Geographic
2024 Slowing Baby Boom Means Breaking With Past, The New York Times
2024 Need Therapy? In West Africa, Hairdressers Can Help, The New York Times
2024 Inside Artist Yinka Shonibare’s Lagos Retreat for Creatives, Architectural Digest
2023 Fleeing Generals at War and Violent Militias, Many Say ‘We’re Not Coming Back, New York Times
2023 She founded an Afghan girls school. Now she runs it in exile in Rwanda, National Geographic
2023 See scenes from classic fairy tales—with a Nigerian twist, National Geographic
2023 Sartorial Subversion: Upstarts and Start-ups in Sub-Saharan Africa, National Geographic
2023 Tour Artist Kehinde Wiley’s Quiet Creative Haven in Lagos, Nigeria, Architectural Digest
2022 Earth Now Has 8 Billion People—and Counting, National Geographic
2022 Meet The 7 Lagos-Based Talents Leading The Charge in Next-Wave Design,Architectural Digest
2022 Nets, Buoys, Salt, Ice. For West African Fishermen, ‘Everything’ Is Going Up,New York Times
2022 Abused and abandoned, three women share their stories of pregnancy withschizophrenia., CNN
2021 A Community on Lagos Island is Being Swallowed By the Sea, CNN
2021 Wole Soyinka is Not Going Anywhere, New York Times
2021 The Fisherwomen, Chevron and The Leaking Pipe, New York Times
2021 The Nigerian Activist Trying to Sell Plants to the Oil Company That Destroyed Them, New York Times
2021 Life Expectancy Disparities in Three Countries, New York Times
2021 In Nigeria, ‘Feminist’ Was a Common Insult. Then Came the Feminist Coalition, New York Times
2021 Crossing the Niger River, Inch by Painful Inch, Hour by Wasted Hour, New York Times
2021 A Continent Where the Dead Are Not Counted, New York Times
2020 No Generation Is As Strong As Today’s Youth”, Vogue
2020 In Nigeria, When Will Justice Catch Up With the Present?, Vogue
2020 Police Took Their Son Away. Then the Merchants of Hope Showed Up, New York Times
2020 Coronavirus in Nigeria: Living through a Pandemic, The Washington Post
2019 Nigeria Enlists Big Beverage Companies to Fight Plastic Waste, Bloomberg Businessweek
2019 How Women Are Stepping Up To Remake Rwanda, National Geographic
2019 The Migrants Who Return Home, New York Times
2019 Confessions of a Hit Squad, New York Times
2019 The New Daughters of Africa, New Internationalist
2018 Exodus: The Climate Migration Crises. Forced Out, The Weather Channel
2018 Taking the Pulse of Nigerian Style, The New York Times
2018 The Voyages Issue, The New York Times Magazine
2018 Next Generation Leaders, Time Magazine
2018 Health Special: Out of Africa, Newsweek
2018 A Sense of Place, Huck Magazine
2017 The Ease of Monrovia’s ‘Hipco’ Clubs, New York Times
2017 Why We Need More Visual Journalists and Editors of Color, Nieman Reports
2017 30 Photographers Re-Picturing A Continent, Everyday Africa
2016 Photographer’s Guide to Lagos, Format Magazine