OmenaArt
Foundation

Although initially trained as a painter, Dike is best known for her transgressive and self-taught approach to sculpture, particularly in wood—a medium she has consistently returned to across her decades-long career. Created in 1989, Drummers Herald The Spirits is part of the artist’s early body of work, which took the form of intricate reliefs. Ndidi Dike works with industrial power tools and employs burning techniques, shaping the wood with curvilinear carvings, scorched surfaces, and symbolic motifs from uli design traditions. Through her art, she explores themes such as pre-and post-colonial culture in Africa, the economic legacy of enslavement and forced migration, and the effects of the extractive industrial complex on life and natural resources in Africa.

Ndidi Dike (b. 1960) is a Nigerian sculptor and multimedia installation artist whose work examines critical socio-political issues . Her art explores themes such as slavery, colonialism, gender inequality, and human trafficking . Over a decade-long career, Dike has exhibited widely in Nigeria and internationally, including the landmark solo exhibition Waka-into-Bondage: The Last ¾ Mile in 2008 . Her work is in significant collections, including Tate in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the National Gallery of Art in Nigeria.