b. 1981, Enugu, Nigeria Lives and works in Lagos, Nigeria Obinna Makata is a Nigerian sculptor and mixed-media artist whose work interrogates cultural identity, consumerism, and rapidly shifting social values within contemporary Nigeria. A 2007 graduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, with a degree in Sculpture, he creates visually vibrant collages using ink, acrylic, and scraps of Ankara fabric—materials he sourced from discarded textile scraps found at a tailor’s stall. He describes these compositions as “broken pieces of African culture,” responding to the encroachment of foreign influences and the fragmentation of traditional value systems. Makata’s visual language blends vivid strokes and textiles to evoke a mythic yet urgent narrative of collective identity and disruption. Over his career, he has completed artist residencies at the African Artists’ Foundation, Thought Pyramid Art Centre in Abuja, and the Matadero Museum in Madrid. His first solo exhibition, Metahistories, debuted at the African Artists’ Foundation in Lagos in 2012, and he has since participated in more than twenty-five group shows across Africa and beyond. In 2025, he presented Fabricated Identities, a significant solo exhibition at SOTO Gallery in Lagos, exploring the weight of consumer culture and material histories through intricate collage and his newly launched Carton Series.