“The Gathering,’ Nigerian artist Nengi Omuku’s first U.S. solo show, features eight of the artist’s vivid oil paintings on view amid works in the de Young Museum’s historical African art collection in San Francisco.
Paintings in “The Gathering,” which opens Saturday and continues through May 2028, are lush fields of color that incorporate dreamy imagery. Some depict nature and include landscapes or fields of flowers and bodies of water. Others have political themes. Their canvas is Sanyan fabric, a Yoruba textile once used for ceremonial attire.
Omuku used Sanyan as a method to stay grounded in her Nigerian roots when she was an art student in England and missing home. At a media preview for the exhibition, she said, “I was finding ways to ground myself and it was through materials and textiles that I felt that I could sort of re-find my identity.”
Fans of Claude Monet may find similarities between the iconic French artist’s paintings (some on view at de Young through July 26 in “Monet and Venice”) and Omuku’s work.
Omuku gained a new appreciation for Monet when she did a residency in France and saw “Water Lilies.”
She said, “It sort of gave me permission and [I] allowed myself to paint flowers. … I felt like it wasn’t serious enough. …. But why is nature not serious enough. … Why can’t it be discussed more?”
“In the process of making these paintings, I found that my state of mind was shifting. I didn’t want to just focus on darkness, I wanted to find solace and solitude. And gardens and landscape was how to do that. … Monet was an entry point for me to start thinking about how to incorporate that into painting,” she added.
Omuku’s work also features themes of political and social instability.
“Omuku’s paintings are deeply political, not because they depict crisis, but because they insist on possibility,” said Natasha Becker, curator of African Art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, who selected pieces for the exhibition from the de Young collection that worked well in conversation with Omuku’s paintings.
Becker said, “In dialogue with the historical collection, her work shows how African artists have long harnessed imagination as a way to survive rupture and to dream beyond it.”
“The Gathering” runs from June 27, 2026 through May 14, 2028 at the de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco. Admission is free for youth (ages 6-17); $11 students; $17 seniors; $20 general. Visit famsf.org.
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