The Eyes of the Beloved are Everywhere: Chioma Ebinama’s First Solo Exhibition at Morena di Luna, Hove

Maureen Paley is pleased to present Chioma Ebinama’s second solo exhibition with the gallery and her first at Morena di Luna, Hove.

Nigerian-American artist Chioma Ebinama draws from an array of visual and cultural references, employing myth and cosmology as a guide for examining her inner life. Her practice centres around watercolours on paper, a medium that elucidates the process of mark-making as both a meditative act and a tool for self-liberation.

“I have envisioned a story of a feminine figure recalling her past life as a mermaid (or a sea nymph) and thus longs to return to the sea. Turning to the sea can also be a metaphor of letting go of self-imposed social constructs. I’ve been reading a lot about neurodivergence in women and how it often goes undiagnosed because of “masking”, in which a neurodivergent person learns to suppress or camouflage their authentic selves often by mirroring the behaviour of neurotypical people. That said, I think everyone “masks” a little bit especially those coming from the margins who must exist in heteronormative spaces. The protagonist has decided to “unmask” and the hybridity (half-fish, half woman) is an interesting (perhaps ancient) means of describing ways of being that do not fit into simple categories.” – Chioma Ebinama, 2023

Divided into two spaces, Ebinama builds a narrative for her character across the galleries. In the first room, viewers are invited to examine the inner world of the subject, spanning longing, memory, and dreams. Throughout the second space, works turn to the external, dealing with material aspects of pain, death, and intimacy. The mermaid heals herself through recapturing the memories her body has forgotten, obscuring the boundary between carnal or physical experiences.

Ebinama questions the standards of heteronormative and neurotypical decorum. In the act of returning to the sea, she details her subject as “letting go of human constructs, allowing herself a less-defined freedom of being”.