Where Texture Meets Touch; Bold, Layered, Alive. The Art Of Ugonna

Ugonna Nnaemeka Umeike is a Lagos-based visual artist whose practice merges the digital with the tactile to create bold, immersive expressions of African identity and imagination. Working across digital illustration, foam rubber, flex, and other experimental materials, his pieces feel both grounded in cultural memory and vibrantly futuristic. Whether sculpting large-scale forms or layering pixels into portraits, Umeike explores the emotional textures of identity, beauty, and presence. His work doesn’t just depict ,it feels, questions, and reconstructs the way we see self and society.

What First Brought You to Visual Art, and how did You Develop Your Signature Multi-Layered Style?

Like most children, my first brushes with art were informal, instinctive. We drew on sand using broomsticks and nails, then later on walls, exercise books, and any surface that would hold our marks. But things took a meaningful turn around 1995, when I joined a children’s class that had a dedicated art teacher. He introduced us to poster colours and watercolor wash painting. He even helped us frame our tiny paintings, something so simple, yet so affirming. That was the moment I began to take art seriously.

In 1996, while in JSS 3, my school art teacher (a different one) took us on an art excursion across Enugu to IMT, PRODA, and Bona Gallery. That same evening, I returned home and made a decision: I was going to be a professional fine artist. From that year until I finished secondary school in 2000, I participated in several art competitions at state, national, and international levels. I won some, earned honorable mentions in others, but more importantly, I gained confidence and direction all thanks to the encouragement of my art teacher.

Back then, my main interest was painting. There was no internet, and most of my artistic exposure came from textbooks. Colour reproductions were rare, so when I came across them especially in old issues of Reader’s Digest lying around our home I treasured them. Those covers, the annotated paintings, and the illustrated short stories inside left a lasting impression on me. They made art feel magical and possible.

Interestingly, even though I leaned toward painting, I ended up creating sculptures for both WAEC and NECO (my set was the first to write NECO in 2000). Perhaps it was my teacher’s background in sculpture that nudged me in that direction. Thanks to constant assignments and projects, my drawing skills kept improving. I had also read that many of the great artists I admired were not confined to one medium they mastered several.

So I remained open to exploring and experimenting. That openness still guides my practice today.

How has Working with Both Digital and Tactile Media (like Foam Rubber and Flex) Shaped Your Creative Language?

My practice is rooted in curiosity, a lifelong instinct to observe, decode, and translate form. Like many artists, I began by drawing on sand and walls, using whatever tools I could find. But it wasn’t until I studied under Prof. El Anatsui at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka that I began to question the materials themselves, what they meant, where they came from, and how they could speak beyond surface beauty.

At Nsukka, we were constantly encouraged to explore unconventional and indigenous materials. It was uncomfortable at times. I was drawn to naturalism and representation then, and for years that limited how I approached making. But with time, experience, and reflection, I found myself returning to material exploration now with intention.

Today, I work across digital illustration, sculptural forms, and mixed media. My recent use of synthetic rubber allows me to engage histories embedded in the material from colonial trade to environmental politics reimagining these narratives through layered form and texture.

I’m interested in what materials remember, and how they help us reconstruct or challenge what we think we know. My work is a process of listening, translating, and shaping what I find into form, color, and rhythm.

Can you Walk us through the Process of Creating a Piece like “QUEEN FOR A DAY”?

I can talk of Queen for A Day and my flex phase, but I have lost interest in that particular series now and would prefer to talk about my current rubber weave and knot works. The ones I sent you images of on Instagram.

What Draws you to Materials like Foam Rubber and Flex , what do they Add to Your Storytelling?

What foam rubber and flex add to my stories is drawn from what they are before they get into my art. Rubber has some deep history. In my current work, I look back to how the fate of the people of Congo played out under King Leopold II of Belgium. Because of his lust for rubber and the riches it was bringing him at the time, millions of Congolese people are said to have perished while being exploited to produce this rubber. I also widen the symbolism of the material to include all other natural resources and minerals, the desire for which was a driving motive behind colonization. When I worked with flex, I was talking about the "flexing" (show off) predilection of the present day, especially on social media, where "everybody's" life is perfect, just like a billboard or banner advertisement.

A Lot of Your Work is Vibrant and Immersive, what Emotions or Ideas do You Hope Viewers Feel?

I want viewers to feel excitement, wonder and curiosity. I want them to see beauty and labour. When they hear my stories behind the work, I want these earlier emotions they felt to connect to these stories. For instance, I want them to admire the works like they would diamonds. But I also want them to remember that there are conflict diamonds, behind which there has been much unpublicized sorrow and tragedy.

Are there Recurring Cultural or Personal Themes you Explore through Your Art?

In my current series, I am occupied with repetition (recurrence) of history, colonization-related topics, natural resources, determining factors in international politics, migration and connection or loss thereof between home and diaspora and so on.

What does being a Lagos-based visual artist add to your perspective and work?

Being in Lagos or very near Lagos encourages me to do "proper" art, because I know that the acquisition and appreciation of such art happens in this location, or is facilitated here.

How do you Balance Creating for Exhibitions, Commissions, and more Personal Projects?

My productivity is rising because I now have paid assistants for certain works I do. This means I can do commissions like portraiture without the more important work (the exhibition type) having to halt completely. Happily, my current rubber exploration which I exhibit and sell, began as "personal" exercises. So I do not compromise or lose the personal while continuing it.

What New Materials, Formats, or Themes are you Excited to Explore Next?

I actually want to dig really deep with my current material. So until I have done that enough, I will not likely be delving into any new ones yet.

If you could Show Your Work Anywhere in the World, Where would it be and Why?

I would like my work to show in the top global art biennales, exhibitions and fairs. The reason is that a certain distinguished level of collectorship and audience are mainly guaranteed at such show spaces.