Osaru Obaseki

Biography

Osaru Obaseki is a Nigerian multi-disciplinary visual artist and Independent cultural entrepreneur. She is one of the many rising artists in Africa who has carved a niche in the contemporary art scene through her art practice that kicked started professionally in 2017. Her works explores materiality, history, cultural identity, societal realities, colonialism and post-colonialism. Osaru currently creates using sand (earth) and acrylic as a way of synergizing two different civilizations – the ancient and the modern. She is also a postal girl for bronze making, taking the long-standing history of bronze casting and its methodology of the lost wax method in creating contemporary forms.

She is a fellow of the ITP-International Training Programme with the British Museum, a member of the British Art Network and has exhibited with Rele gallery, Saboart Advisory & Amar Singh Gallery, Eclectica Gallery and AKKA Project to mention a few.

In 2019, she was part of the Re-entanglement project in collaboration with the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, London, UK & Nosona studios, Benin City, Nigeria.

She was a part of the Back to Base workshop with Goethe institute & Rele Arts Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria and has been featured in various media publications and documentaries like the New York Times, BBC, Document Women, DW documentary, French/German TV ARTE.

Most recently, she is an active part of the Youth Heritage Africa programme being hosted by ICCROM – International Centre for the study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, which led to her participation in the ICCROM General Assembly 2023. Currently, Osaru is a resident artist with AKKA project, Venezia, Italy and on a residency programme in collaboration with Berengo studios, Murano, Italy.

At the British Museum
During her time on the International Training Programme, Osaru was based in the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas and her partner placement was spent at Glasgow Museums.

In 2021 participants were asked to plan and propose a temporary exhibition on the theme of journeys, drawing on their existing museum experience and the skills learnt during the programme.  Osaru worked with Mario Tuki (Rapa Nui) and Haneen Mukho (Palestine) on her Object in focus project. Their exhibition proposal was titled Deciphering the Ba-Bird.

Osaru’s place on the ITP was generously supported by The de Laszlo Foundation.