b. 12 June 1987, Abuja, Nigeria Lives and works in Northampton, UK Ndidi Emefiele is a Nigerian–British multimedia painter known for her vivid, layered figurative compositions. She earned a B.A. in Fine Arts from Delta State University, Abraka (2007), and later an M.A. from London’s Slade School of Fine Art (2014–2016), where she received the prestigious Olive Prize for Excellence in Painting. Since migrating to the UK in 2014, she has exhibited widely across London, New York, Lagos, Johannesburg, and Abuja. Drawing deeply on Nigerian cultural heritage, her works poignantly comment on female identity, autonomy, and resilience. Her iconic figures (often women depicted with oversized heads and protective glasses) stand in a collapsing narrative where male presence is absent, asserting a world defined by strength, introspection, and vivid expression. Emefiele’s dynamic process integrates painting with collage, textiles, found objects such as CDs, and pen, creating canvases that feel like visual stories or urban palimpsests. Her expressive brushwork, bold use of color, and rich materiality make her narratives visually compelling and thematically rich. Her work is held in significant private and public collections including the Mint Museum (North Carolina), various corporate and private collections, and has fetched strong results at auction.