Frida Orupabo
(b. 1986)Nigerian Norwegian artist Frida Orupabo combines personal and found images from eBay, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, and digital archives in her collage work to address issues of race, gender, violence, representation, and sexuality.
Biography
The artist grew up in an industrial city an hour’s drive from Oslo. She obtained a bachelor's degree in development studies at the University of Oslo, which allowed her to learn more about critical gender and race studies. During her time as an undergraduate student, the artist was heavily influenced by bell hooks’s writings on community and care.
Orupabo went on to receive a master’s degree in sociology and provided social services at a center for sex workers. Her days consisted of counseling and engaging in various conversations with the visitors of the centers, where she spent more time ruminating on the economic and social conditions of Black women.
At the University of Oslo, the artist bought a scanner that could digitize film photos, and she began to manipulate the images using Microsoft Paint. Heavily influenced by the conceptual underpinnings of David Hammons’s body prints, she started scanning family photographs and approaching the making of the “self” through the acts of composition and layering. Filmmaker and artist Arthur Jafa noticed the artist’s Instagram, @Nemiepeba, where the artist first shared her collages. Soon after discovering Orupabo’s work, in 2017, Jafa asked her to participate in an exhibition titled A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions at the Serpentine Galleries in London. From there, her work has developed into large-scale collages attached to gallery walls by push pins.
Her work has been featured in exhibitions internationally, including Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo; Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway; Huis Marseille, Amsterdam; Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany; Frankfurt am Main and Kunstnernes Hus, Germany. Her work is included in the collections of Guggenheim Museum, New York; Pérez Art Museum; the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; and the Kadist Foundation, Paris. The Studio Museum first acquired her work in 2021.
Frida Orupabo
(b. 1986)Nigerian Norwegian artist Frida Orupabo combines personal and found images from eBay, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, and digital archives in her collage work to address issues of race, gender, violence, representation, and sexuality.
Biography
The artist grew up in an industrial city an hour’s drive from Oslo. She obtained a bachelor's degree in development studies at the University of Oslo, which allowed her to learn more about critical gender and race studies. During her time as an undergraduate student, the artist was heavily influenced by bell hooks’s writings on community and care.
Orupabo went on to receive a master’s degree in sociology and provided social services at a center for sex workers. Her days consisted of counseling and engaging in various conversations with the visitors of the centers, where she spent more time ruminating on the economic and social conditions of Black women.
At the University of Oslo, the artist bought a scanner that could digitize film photos, and she began to manipulate the images using Microsoft Paint. Heavily influenced by the conceptual underpinnings of David Hammons’s body prints, she started scanning family photographs and approaching the making of the “self” through the acts of composition and layering. Filmmaker and artist Arthur Jafa noticed the artist’s Instagram, @Nemiepeba, where the artist first shared her collages. Soon after discovering Orupabo’s work, in 2017, Jafa asked her to participate in an exhibition titled A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions at the Serpentine Galleries in London. From there, her work has developed into large-scale collages attached to gallery walls by push pins.
Her work has been featured in exhibitions internationally, including Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo; Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway; Huis Marseille, Amsterdam; Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany; Frankfurt am Main and Kunstnernes Hus, Germany. Her work is included in the collections of Guggenheim Museum, New York; Pérez Art Museum; the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; and the Kadist Foundation, Paris. The Studio Museum first acquired her work in 2021.