Uzo Njoku’s show “Virginia is for Artists” is at the Connaughton Gallery through June 14.
More information at commerce.virginia.edu/art. Supplied photo.
The John P. and Stephanie F. Connaughton Gallery at the McIntire School of Commerce might not be on every Charlottesville art lover’s radar, but it should be. The gallery typically presents three shows each year with two artists per show who are invited to apply by McIntire Art Committee members. In most cases, McIntire purchases work from the exhibiting artist to add to the school’s permanent collection, now numbering over 80 pieces and hung in public spaces throughout the Rouss & Robertson Halls complex.
Currently at Connaughton is the work of Uzo Njoku. A 2019 UVA graduate, Njoku was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and moved to the United States when she was 7. At UVA, Njoku started out as a statistics major but switched to studio art after her first year.
She is now a one-woman art-producing and marketing powerhouse based in New York City. “Uzo’s journey from statistics major to a self-styled ‘artpreneur’ holds such appeal and also valuable lessons for students in both the arts and in commerce,” says Dorothy C. Kelly, McIntire’s Robert B. Hardaway, Jr. Lecturer of Personal Finance, who sits on the art committee and is an admirer of Njoku’s oeuvre as well as her entrepreneurial skills.
You only have to look at Njoku’s sleek website to see the breadth of her activities; beyond painting, there are events and a prodigious array of Njoku merch—coloring books, calendars, mugs, T-shirts, and outerwear—plus her own wallpaper designs and a mural commission for Tommy Hilfiger. Not bad for a recent college graduate.
Njoku’s vibrant, large format works feature broad, flat planes of paint. For the most part, she takes a stylized approach and uses a bold palette of bright colors together with black to create a compelling graphic quality.
In many of her pieces, Njoku incorporates patterns, as their detail contrasts nicely with the more simplified passages. Pattern is very important to Njoku, who uses it to incorporate Nigerian culture into her work. She uses it in a similar fashion to Kehinde Wiley, as backdrops to portraits, but she favors traditional wax cloth patterns, such as in “A New Perspective,” or distilled versions inspired by them in “A Very Nice Girl,” as opposed to Wiley’s lush floral expanses.
For Njoku, these designs extend beyond visual flourish or cultural reference to imbue the pieces with movement. “The Weight of Ink” is a self-portrait of the artist, identified by the “U” tab on the end of her turtleneck zipper. She’s positioned against an intense teal background and wears a hot pink sweater under an orange shirt and red jacket. Features like ribbing, stitching, and buttons are rendered in careful detail. Two yellow circles denote earrings. What makes the painting captivating is the face, which is largely nonexistent. Is it that she is laughing so hard that her eyes are squinted shut? All we can see against the black of her skin and hair are her teeth, yet the title suggests a more somber interpretation. Is it a comment about Black invisibility, or the weighty responsibility of presenting the Black experience? One thing is certain: The title suggests that there’s more here than meets the eye.
With the “The Young Man,” Njoku produces a psychologically charged image—a result of the melancholia that seems writ on the subject’s face. Sporting a bright red sweater and jeans, he stands before a structure composed of various geometric shapes that form walls, steps, and a doorway. It feels confined, and one wonders if it’s intended to reflect his situation and, perhaps, the stasis that governs his life. Languor is conveyed by a couple of chickens pecking at the ground. Njoku executes these in a more painterly fashion, using blurred brushstrokes to produce feathers. A full laundry basket is positioned against the back wall, and behind the youth hangs a showy floral cloth. Njoku makes it pop by painting it like a self-contained rectangular pattern, as opposed to laundry drying on a clothesline.
The largest work in the show, “Indefinite Space,” is an eye-popping tour de force of motifs and portraiture. Two female figures recline against a vivid pattern of blue, yellow, red, and white that explodes across the canvas. Njoku ratchets up the effect by introducing another similarly hued pattern that butts up against the dominant one. Behind these, she paints a background that looks like a stylized version of deep space. The women, whose faces are rendered with deft sensitivity, confront the viewer with powerful gazes. Each wears African-style head wraps and large gold earrings; one has on fashionably ripped jeans and sneakers, while the other sports a nose ring. The clothing positions them in contemporary times, yet the figures’ poses recall classical renderings of Greek gods and, together with the celestial background, suggest divinity.
The exhibition, which includes multiple works featuring strong women, opened during March’s Women’s History Month. The fact that the strong women in this show are also Black is especially important, given its location at a school that produces future movers and shakers within the realms of commerce and power.
Uzo Njoku’s “Out of the Shadows,” featuring vivid, large-scale paintings that bring black women to the forefront, is on view at the New City Arts Welcome Gallery during the month of December. Photo by Amy Jackson
While working on her newest series of paintings, Uzo Njoku learned the importance of telling a story through portraiture.
The story Njoku tells with “Out of the Shadows,” on view this month at the New City Arts Welcome Gallery, is one that has global reach and widespread effects, and is perhaps not told—or heard—nearly enough.
“Out of the Shadows” is a series of large-scale portraits of dark-skinned black women painted in front of vividly-hued, bold backgrounds that reference traditional West African Ankara print fabrics. By juxtaposing her subjects’ dark skin against a brightly colored background, Njoku pushes the women she paints to
the forefront, not just of the painting but of the viewer’s attention.
Njoku, who was born in Nigeria and immigrated to the U.S. with her parents when she was 7 years old, is making a point about skin lightening and skin bleaching, a practice the World Health Organization considers a global public health concern.
According to a 2011 WHO report on the effects of mercury in skin lightening products, up to 77 percent of women in Nigeria “are reported to use skin lightening products on a regular basis,” likely the highest proportion in the world.
These soaps and creams are heavily marketed to women in countries where skin-lightening products are not banned. When applied to the body’s largest organ—the skin—they can cause kidney damage, skin rashes, skin discoloration, and scarring, and can negatively affect the skin’s resistance to fungal and bacterial infections.
Njoku says the damage is more than skin-deep—it’s emotional and psychological, too. “In many countries, like Nigeria, whiteness is still connected to the old power structures of
British and European colonialism,” says Njoku, to a time when “’whiteness’ symbolized power and status.”
Njoku notes that in these countries (the U.S. included), women of color, and dark-skinned black women in particular, are often made to feel small or in the background. And so with her “intentionally black portraiture paintings of black women,” she aims not just to capture and emphasize their physical beauty, but their intellectual and emotional complexity as well.
“I’m hoping to captivate the viewer’s attention and evoke a sense of dominant power coming from the women in the paintings,” she says. —Erin O’Hare
The Bridge PAI 209 Monticello Rd. “P.O. Box America,” Curtis Grimstead’s photo series that captures the charm of America’s rural post offices as well as the grand architecture of post offices in major U.S. cities. 5:30-9:30pm.
“Curtains of Night,” by Barbara Iobst
Chroma Projects 103 W. Water St. “Uncle Drosselmeyer’s Other Gifts,” a group exhibition proposing ideas of magic, imagination, and transformation, featuring fantastical “toys” by Megan Marlatt, Sean Samoheyl, Beatrix Ost, Deborah Rogers, Barbara Iobst, and Aggie Zed. 5-7pm.
CitySpace Art Gallery 100 Fifth St. NE. “Looking Deep Into Nature,” featuring photography by George Beller, a doctor and former chief of the cardiovascular division at UVA Health System. 5:30-7:30pm.
C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “New Directions for Ben Greenberg Photography,” featuring newwork by a photographer known for his dramatic and inspirational images of central Virginia. 6-8pm.
Dovetail Design + Cabinetry 309 E. Water St. “Winter Solace,” an exhibition of Melissa Malone’s oil and acrylic paintings on canvas of various bodies of water, meant to conjure feelings of contentment and quiet. 5-7pm.
Fellini’s Restaurant 200 Market St. “Celebrating the Season,” oil paintings by Marla McNamara. 5:30-7pm.
Joseph Joseph & Joseph Antiques 508 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. An exhibition of paintings by Edward Thomas. 5-7pm.
Malleable Studios 1304 E. Market St., Ste. T. An artisan soirée and sale featuring work by Tavia Brown, Mia van Beek, Rebecca Phalen, and Karen Eide. 5-8pm.
“Forested,” encaustic on panel by Giselle Gautreau
McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In the Sarah B. Smith Gallery, the annual holiday shop full of gifts made by McGuffey member artists; in the Downstairs, Upstairs, North, and South Hall Galleries, the annual cash-and-carry holiday members’ show, featuring work by both renting and associate McGuffey artists, including Tami Walker, Klaus Anselm, Jill Kerttula, John Trippel, Judith Ely, Giselle Gautreau, Charlene Cross, and others. 5:30-7:30pm.
Milli Coffee Roasters 400 Preston Ave. Ste. 150. An exhibition of landscape, portrait, and urban photography by Zach Phillips and Taylor Rigg. 7-10pm.
New Dominion Bookshop 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Summer Days,” featuring oil paintings by Blake Hurt. 5:30-7pm.
Piedmont Virginia Community College College Dr. “Let There Be Light,” a one-night-only outdoor exhibition of light-based artworks and performances that illuminate the darkened grounds surrounding the Dickinson Building. 6-9pm.
Roy Wheeler Realty Co. 404 Eighth St. NE.“Enter Nym’s World,” an exhibition of work by Nym Pedersen, who keeps in mind the approach of many great jazz artists when he makes paintings and sculpture: Paint what you feel, and keep it free. 5-7:30pm.
“Dahlia,” by John Grant
Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. In the main gallery, “Attraction,” an exhibition of new botanical work by John Grant, who collects blossoms from his personal gardens and across central Virginia, and brings them to his studio to scan at a high resolution; in the Dové Gallery, “TORN,” an exhibition of work focused on the modern portrayal of women by photographer Scott Irvine and artist Kim Meinelt, who together work as WAXenVINE. 5:30-7:30pm.
Spring Street Boutique 107 W. Main St. Downtown Mall. “I Saw an Angel,” featuring paintings by Jane Goodman and Winston Wiant. 6-8pm.
Studio IX 969 Second St. SE. “Dear Lilith: A Body of New Work. Sincerely, Sam Gray,” an exhibition that shares the unfolding conversation between the artist, a self-described “modern angry feminist,” and Lilith, ancient mother goddess, proto-feminist, and original wife of Adam. 5:30-7:30pm.
Top Knot Studio 103 Fifth St. SE. “These Days,” featuring work by Susan Mills and Bethany Pritchard. 5:30-7:30pm.
VMDO Architects 200 E. Market St. “Beads and Wood,” a multimedia show of work by the firm’s architects. 5:30-7:30pm.
Welcome Gallery 114 Third St. NE. “Out of the Shadows,” featuring Uzo Njoku’s vivid, large-scale paintings that bring African women, who are often made to feel small or in the background, to the forefront. 5-7:30pm.
WriterHouse 508 Dale Ave. “University Reflections,” an exhibition of oil paintings on canvas, textured with a palette knife, by Lauchlan Davis. 5-7pm.
WVTF/RadioIQ 216 W. Water St. An exhibition of landscape paintings by Nelson County artist Susan B. Viemeister. 5-7pm.
First Fridays is a monthly art event featuring exhibit openings at many downtown art galleries and additional exhibition venues. Several spaces offer receptions.
Other December shows
Annie Gould Gallery 121B S. Main St., Gordonsville. A holiday show featuring paintings, jewelry, photography, sculpture, textiles, and other unique gift items from more than 25 artists and artisans.
Art on the Trax 5784 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. “Looking West,” featuring Deliece Blanchard’s plein air paintings from national parks. Opens December 8, 4-6pm.
Buck Mountain Episcopal Church 4133 Earlysville Rd., Earlysville. “Hope: Prepare the Way,” featuring work by BMEC artists.
Create Gallery at Indoor Biotechnologies 700 Harris St. “Faces at Work,” an exhibition of Blake Hurt’s 40 small oil-on-canvas portraits of people who work at 700 Harris St.
Gift Forest 301 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. The Bridge PAI’s annual holiday pop-up market features handmade gifts, vintage finds, and vinyl records from more than 100 local purveyors.
The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “Reflections: Native Art Across Generations”; “Excavations: The Prints of Julie Mehretu”; “Unexpected O’Keeffe: The Virginia Watercolors and Later Paintings”; “Camera Work: American Photography of the Early 20th Century”; “Highlights from the Collection of Heywood and Cynthia Fralin”; and “Oriforme” by Jean Arp.
Jefferson School African American Heritage Center 233 Fourth St. NW “(W)here To Stay?!,” An exhibition of Magnus Wennman’s photographs of Syrian refugee children accompanied by artwork and writings by Charlottesville High School inspired by the stories of displacement of their classmates. Opens December 12, 6-8pm.
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection 400 Worrell Dr. “Freshwater Saltwater Weave,” a series of glass works by contemporary urban-based Arrernte artist Jenni Kemarre Martiniello; “Beyond Dreamings: The Rise of Indigenous Australian Art in the United States,” revealing the ways in which, since 1988, Indigenous Australian artists have forged one of the most globally significant art movements of our time.
Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Annie Harris Massie: New Paintings,” featuring work that captures the subtleties of color and light played over area landscapes.
Martha Jefferson Hospital Cancer Center, Second Floor 500 Martha Jefferson Dr. “Sunrises and Sunsets,” featuring work by Randy Baskerville. Opens December 11.
Piedmont Virginia Community College V. Earl Dickinson Building, 501 College Dr. In the North Gallery, “Possibilities,” featuring ceramic vessels and objects by Tom Clarkson; in the South Gallery, works by PVCC art faculty such as Fenella Belle, Ashley Gill, Lou Haney, Will May, Beryl Solla, Jeremy Taylor, and others.
Shenandoah Valley Art Center 122 S. Wayne Ave., Waynesboro. The annual winter contemporary juried exhibition, this year titled “Women’s Work” and featuring a collection of cutting-edge work from Inez Berinson Blanks, Colleen Conner, Eileen Doughty, Sarah Lapp, Peg Sheridan, Astrid Tuttle, and others. Opens December 8, 5-7pm.
Telegraph Art & Comics 211 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. Fourth annual picture show with Adrian Todd Webb, featuring small, original, framed pop-culture prints.
UVA Medical Center Main Lobby 1215 Lee St. “Distant Worlds,” an exhibition of 15 deep space paintings by Patty Avalon.
Westminster Canterbury of the Blue Ridge 250 Pantops Mountain Rd. “Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water,” featuring 24 art quilts by the Fiber and Stitch Art Collective. Open daily, 9am to 5pm, during the month of December.
In The Bluestocking Society coloring book, Uzo Njoku portrays women doing both everyday and extraordinary things, showing women that there is no limit to who they can aspire to be. Photo by Amy Jackson
A few months ago, artist Uzo Njoku was in the market for a new coloring book.
She noticed that most coloring books geared toward adults, like the ubiquitous Enchanted Garden, featured densely outlined flora and fauna, medallions, and mandalas, and that most coloring books for children contained cartoonish figures.
Njoku, a UVA studio art major who paints large-scale works of dark-skinned subjects (most of them women) against bright, bold-patterned backgrounds referencing Ankara fabrics, sought a different type of coloring book—one with more realistic figures, but still with the density of pattern and sense of magic that makes coloring a therapeutic activity.
But she couldn’t find what she wanted, so she decided to draw and publish her own. The result, The Bluestocking Society, has sold more than 1,000 copies since it was released last month, and Njoku has consignment contracts with bookstores all over the East Coast, including New Dominion Bookshop and Telegraph Art & Comics here in town; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond; and Clic Bookstore & Gallery in New York City.
Each page of The Bluestocking Society shows a different aspect of femininity, with particular focus on women of color.
Njoku, who was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and has lived in the U.S. since she was 7 years old, says she wants to create art that is “meaningful…impactful,” especially for women and people of color in her own community, at UVA and in Charlottesville, two places where she says women and people of color do not always feel welcome.
Artist Uzo Njoku wants her coloring book to be both therapeutic and educational. In addition to drawing the women in the book, she researched their lives and accomplishments for a one-page biography included next to each woman’s page. Photo by Amy Jackson
With her paintings, Njoku aims to show how women and people of color are valuable, that they have voices that deserve to be heard. But she’s aware that not everyone can afford to purchase a painting or a print to hang on their wall at home and remind them of that message, so a coloring book was an accessible way to offer her work.
Njoku chose a title that invokes the Blue Stockings Society, an informal women’s social, intellectual, and educational movement founded and led by salonist and literary critic Elizabeth Montagu in mid-18th-century England. Members of the Blue Stockings Society championedthe importance of education for women, and it inspired Njoku to include contemporary women like Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist who at age 15 spoke out against the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education and, not long after that speech, survived an assassination attempt on her life and now continues her work fighting for girls’ education.
Njoku wants her coloring book to be both therapeutic and educational. In addition to drawing the women in the book, she researched their lives and accomplishments for a one-page biography included next to each woman’s page.
Njoku also presents every woman as her own person, because she believes that too often, they are discussed only in the context of men’s lives. Take, for example, Dolores Huerta, a Mexican-American labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farmworkers Association (later United Farm Workers) with Cesar Chavez, the name and face more commonly associated with the movement.
Or Yoko Ono, a groundbreaking multimedia artist, musician, performance artist, filmmaker, and peace activist (John Lennon was her husband). “She’s amazing on her own,” Njoku says of Ono, just like every woman.
In addition to Yousefzai, Huerta, and Ono, there’s decorated tennis player Serena Williams, artist Frida Kahlo, political activist and writer Angela Davis, and sprinter Cathy Freeman, the first Aboriginal Australian woman to compete in the Olympics, in 1996. “And of course, I had to include Beyoncé,” says Njoku.
Njoku also included drawings of women with no specified identity—women graduating from college and graduate school, an Habesha, women cooking, mothers with their children. She included a drawing of a pregnant teenager, because in society’s eyes, young mothers are talked about as a sad thing, but “there’s beauty in it. You had a child. You brought a being into this world,” and it’s worthy of celebration and respect, says Njoku.
She drew women with specific facial features and body types, because to her, it’s not enough to present a blank page where a woman’s skin can be colored in any hue—brown, dark brown, tan, peach, blue. Even in the line drawings, she wanted to identify these women as women of color—with, for example, black facial features and black hairstyles.
Before one even gets to the drawings, the first page of the book includes a blank frame with the numbers 1 through 5, urging the person reading it to make a list of five things they like about themselves.
At first, Njoku imagined women and girls as the audience for The Bluestocking Society, but she quickly realized the coloring book is for everyone.
The Bluestocking Society urges people of all genders to see these women, and all women, for who they are and what they are capable of. Women contain multitudes, Njoku’s coloring book says, and all women—from the 16-year-old mother to Oprah Winfrey—are equally inspiring.
