Untitled, 2024

Winifred Otowa  

Winifred Otowa (b. 1998) is a Nigerian visual artist based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She holds a BA in Fine and Applied Arts from Niger Delta University and is completing an MFA at Ulster University, Belfast.

Otowa's practice explores psychological landscapes shaped by memory, migration, and lived experience. Working primarily in figurative painting, she focuses on the interior lives of Black women, drawing from her community and personal relationships. Her work translates themes of loss, reflection, and emotional endurance into contemplative narratives.

Her imagery often features natural environments rooted in childhood memories. These act as psychological spaces where figures occupy shared environments yet remain internally distinct. Through posture and spatial relationships, Otowa explores how emotional experiences are carried individually and collectively, showing multiple figures embodying different responses to the same emotional condition. Her work reflects the intersections of African and British cultures within the diaspora.

Selected Exhibitions
Otowa's exhibition history spans Nigeria, the UK, and Ireland:

2020: Final Year Exhibition, Painting Studio, Niger Delta University.

2022–2023: Visual Dialogues, Female Artists Association of Nigeria (FAAN), Lagos.

2023: Art of Love and Collaboration, The Art Hotel, Lagos.

2024: Black & Global Majority Art Fair, Casild Art Contemporary, London.

2025: Pulse, Queen Street Studios, Belfast.

Ongoing/Recent: Black History Month, Arthur Cox Law Firm, Dublin; Prologue Interim Show, MFA Year 2, Ulster University.

Through her paintings, Otowa creates spaces for reflection, inviting viewers to engage with complex emotional states and positioning art as a vital tool for processing and survival.