TAMAR HENDEL GALLERY

Fall/Winter Juried Exhibition

Zemaye Okediji

Vestiges
Paper collage
21 1/8” x 27 1/8”
2022
NFS

Artist Bio:
Zemaye Okediji is primarily a photographic artist whose work has focused largely on social documentary and developed conceptually through digital manipulation and layering. Inspired by the dynamism of life in Lagos, Nigeria where she lived and ran a studio before attending the School of The Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2018, Zemaye’s work comes about through improvisation and abstraction, challenging the rules of traditional art. She graduated with a Master’s degree in Art therapy and counseling from SAIC and currently works with the team at Create Art Center to offer therapeutic services to clients.  Her work content spanning several industries, exposes her curious approach to life and marks her evolving interests over time. Current work is process-driven and investigates emotional states in life by attempting to capture energies and life stages. With a focus on impassioned shared experiences and unsettling interactions, Zemaye’s work uses cutting, layering, stenciling and repetitive techniques to explore, archive and respond to the human experience.

Artist Statement:
Zemaye’s photographs are works of art that utilize photographic improvisation at different stages of the photographic process. The most recently created, Vestiges, is a continuation of a joint project, Patterns, that began as an exploration of the theme “Identity: who do you think you are?” Patterns develops as a series of photographic derivatives. 

Vestiges is a collage made of distressed photographic prints that is my reflection of the energy encapsulated in the initial reference image created by the other artist in the Patterns partnership, Halima Abubakar Idirisu. It represents professional fortitude, personal resilience and collaborative care.