Ozioma Onuzulike — Shields — Afikaris Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Ends in 24 days: May 21 → August 8, 2026

The Shield Series reflects current issues of protest, migration, gendered violence, and the fight for voice under authoritarian regimes. Like the artist’s earlier ceramic garments and armour, these shields blur the line between beauty and protection. They pose: What do we defend? Who is guarded? And at what expense?

To create his “shields,” the Nsukka, Nigeria-based artist and art historian Ozioma Onuzulike uses copper wire to weave hundreds of glazed ceramic beads and lace-imprinted ceramic buttons into dazzling wall hangings. Some of the ceramic beads have been fired with an ash glaze and iron oxide, while others were inlaid with recycled glass before firing to achieve a geode-like appearance. The beads were formed from stoneware and earthenware in palm kernel molds and thus refer to the oil palm, a tree indigenous to West Africa, and to the legacy of colonial-era resource extraction in Nigeria. Oil palm kernels can be processed to produce palm oil, an important global commodity that became controlled in the region by Great Britain in the late nineteenth century through colonial networks. Some of the artist’s shields also include beads made from found dried palm kernels, offering a material relationship to historical, traditions-based African arts, which often employ and transform natural materials, acknowledging their inherent power.