Paintings, Portals, and Transformations
This is a very special artist feature. It is no exaggeration to say that without Odera Igbokwe, this gallery would not exist. Full stop.
After our launch in 2014, it suddenly became clear to me how much work was necessary to keep the engines running. A very similar feeling to when my wife and I had our first child, which is to say, a wildly unprepared feeling. I was overwhelmed with emails and social media tasks. Enter Odera. Odera stepped in as our first Operations Wizard, to handle pretty much everything. They grew to become a trusted voice, someone I could go to for perspective when we faced challenges, and someone I knew would tell me the absolute truth even if it meant facing my own shortcomings. And when they eventually moved on, we had a healthy system to build on.
Odera has also been a staple in our tapestry of artists. Their work speaks as directly and clearly as the artist behind them. Multi-hyphenate to the core, Odera blends their broad spectrum of creative passions in each of their paintings. You’ll find elements of dance, Afrodiasporic spiritualism, queer imagination, fearless celebration of all of that, and more.
When I thank Odera for being here, I am also thanking them for creating this place with me, and modeling a fearlessness that many artists chase their whole lives.
In gratitude,
– Marc
Curator and Founder, Every Day Original
Odera! Let’s dive in. What’s the version of your origin story you almost never tell?
I was carved from soot, toe nail clippings, shea butter, blood, Black coils, large nostrils, the left over oil from fried plantains, and electricity pulsating through the crossroads.
If Eve was born from Adam’s rib, I was born spineless and undulating out of the stinky morning breath of the creator.
In 1990 I came to Earth and decided to stay.
What, or who, guides your work, and voice?
The work has always been an extension of my five senses. My ecosystem of creativity has always been playful but serious; an embodied reality; an access point; a lifeline; a portal.
There have been moments when I have had to choose, which work to pursue professionally. And my guide is always balancing freedom of expression and creative integration. Which work allows me to be my full self without compartmentalizing? That is one of my north stars in how to shape the intention of the work.
Curator’s Note:
The pieces above are the only ones available from Odera.
They almost always sell directly off of our newsletter.
To get advance notice on their next painting, join our daily art drop!
Tell us about a challenge or two that you had to overcome to make the art you make.
I create work that centers the the Black Queer imagination, ancestral embodied technologies, and Afrodiasporic spiritualism.
With all those intersections, the consistent challenge is finding where the work can thrive. The challenge can look like finding community that honors the work, finding ways to sustain the work financially, and being able to differentiate between communal care and witnessing, and balancing commerce under capitalism.
The consistent challenge is even if I can see where the work can exist and thrive, and even if I can pour into my own creative ecosystem, there is still an audience and people in the arts sector who can simply say no. Rejection is simply a part of finding and building an audience, and leading to where you are accepted.
Overcoming the challenge is simply in embracing the process of making and believing in the work. When the work is driven by knowing your purpose and being aligned in that purpose, not much can deter you. It’s simply about finding the balance of patience, flexibility, experimentation, and remembering to experience life in community.
What did the people closest to you think when you started pursuing art? How has that changed?
I grew up as the youngest of five to Nigerian immigrant parents. Because I was the youngest, the pressure of pursuing medicine, law, or business was softened by the time I was a high school student transitioning into college.
In that family structure, there were some who did not understand art, some who insisted on pursuing something safer, there were some who actively deterred me when it mattered most, and there were some who helped me every step of the way.
Now a days, the people who are closest to me are the ones who not only support my artist journey but truly see me across time and space.
When was the first time you called yourself a professional artist? Why then?
I called myself a professional artist upon graduating from Rhode Island School of Design and receiving my BFA. It just made sense. I did the coursework and received the student debt to prove it.
You nailed it in one.
Personally, I didn’t put too much weight on the descriptor of “Professional”. So often that word is coded in imperialistic colonial western ways of living and understanding that I have to figure out how to engage with.
So, are there doubts?
Overall there was no questioning for me. Being an artist (professional or not) is as simple as being an artist. But the questions at my core were “am I an artist who can sustain my career?” “Am I an artist who is aligned in my purpose and my creations?” “Am I an artist who is honoring my limited time on earth?”
How would you describe what you make?
Paintings, portals, embodied transformations, Black mythophoria, envisioning in spite of fractures that occur via diaspora, divination paintings, the erotic aliveness as an antidote to being a dead tiny thing, reification of archetypes, gateways and access points, lattices of communal care
How does EDO fit into your story?
I first met Marc Scheff at ICON7 in 2012. From there we kept in touch, and fate lead me to becoming the Operations Manager of EDO from 2014-2021. All of that work and responsibility gave me a first hand look at how to build a platform from the ground up. And every day I had a glimpse into a different EDO artists’ work, way of making, and way of presenting their work. If there is one thing EDO taught me it was the power of consistency, and finding the balance of an outpouring of creative expression in a consistent structure and format.
Did you have formal training, or did you find your way in on your own? How do you feel about that path now?
I went to art school for undergraduate studies in illustration. That experience was a beautiful balance of formal training and finding your own way within that particular institution.
That pathway was necessary for me, not only from a technical standpoint of honing my foundations, but also experiencing a network of artists living an learning together.
Before undergad, I was a teenager forced into an all boys catholic school that centered sports as their true god. It was such a somber, grey, and flattening environment. So it was a needed balm and metamorphosis to go from that environment to a much more radiant and creative environment that fed and sustained me.
I am grateful for that path for me, but I recognize it is not for everyone. But for Odera, I wouldn’t have done it any other way.
If you could go back and tell your earlier self one thing about the road ahead, what would it be?
You are more than an illustrator, more than a painter, more than a dancer, more than an artist.
Don’t be afraid to keep combining and integrating those creative pools to create something completely idiosyncratically you.
Don’t put yourself in a box, when you love stretching, melting, melding, breaking, and reforming containers: sometimes you don’t even want a container.
Thank you for this wisdom, Odera. I know your path will inspire others!
Odera Igbokwe shows with Every Day Original. You can find their work at
https://everydayoriginal.com/artist/oderaigbokwe/.