Iwalewa Gallery

Donald Onuoah, 1971, Nigeria.

Donald Onuoha, born in Lagos in 1971, is a distinguished Nigerian artist celebrated for his mastery of Cubism and his distinctive painting style. He graduated with a Distinction in Painting from the Institute of Management Technology, Enugu, in 1999, and has since gained recognition for his ability to blend boldness with emotional depth. Onuoha's works, primarily created using roller brushes...

Donald Onuoha, born in Lagos in 1971, is a distinguished Nigerian artist celebrated for his mastery of Cubism and his distinctive painting style. He graduated with a Distinction in Painting from the Institute of Management Technology, Enugu, in 1999, and has since gained recognition for his ability to blend boldness with emotional depth. Onuoha's works, primarily created using roller brushes with oil and acrylic on canvas, are visually arresting and conceptually layered, resonating with both local and global audiences. Deeply influenced by Cubism, Onuoha's art explores complex themes of beauty, femininity, and identity. His compositions, though seemingly simple in form, are imbued with a profound sense of aesthetic and intellectual rigor. Each piece reflects a deep engagement with the human experience, presented through fragmented perspectives and geometric planes that challenge conventional notions of visual reality. Throughout his career, Onuoha has exhibited his work in numerous prestigious group exhibitions, both in Nigeria and internationally. Notable showcases include the World Bank Art Exhibition in New York, the Donald and Ayoola exhibition at Signature Gallery in Lagos, and the critically acclaimed Awaken the Dawn at Terra Kulture in Lagos. His works continue to evolve, offering new interpretations of identity, culture, and the female form, est.

DONALD ONUOAH's Artworks

Interlocking Forms, 2025

Donald Onuoah

Figures are tightly bound and interlocked, expressed through a mosaic of colorful, geometric shapes, communicating themes of unity and deep human connection.

Ancestral Gaze, 2025

Donald Onuoah

A striking diptych portrait where textured surfaces and opposing colors explore duality, identity, and the profound wisdom of an ancestral spirit, offering a powerful, introspective presence.

The Inner Dialogue, 2023

Donald Onuoah

This powerfully textured, cubist portrait explores the duality of the human spirit. The contrasting planes of rich, earthy tones and cool, subdued grey suggest a profound conversation between inner and outer self.

Fragmented Self, 2024

Donald Onuoah

An introspective black-and-white work that uses abstract forms and negative space to explore the fragmented nature of identity and the spaces between things.

The Profile, 2024

Donald Onuoah

A monochromatic profile portrait rendered in a heavily textured style, creating a sense of history and depth within a simple yet impactful form.

Divided Gaze, 2025

Donald Onuoah

A powerful portrait with a striking horizontal line that dissects the image, highlighting the duality and complexity of the subject's expression.

Red Dress, 2025

Donald Onuoah

This expressive work captures a figure in a red, patterned dress, with a handheld to the face in a gesture that evokes both vulnerability and powerful emotion.

Elegance, 2025

Donald Onuoah

A striking portrait of a figure with a graceful, stylized face and red lips, rendered in a raw and textured style that highlights a sense of poise and inner strength.

Dialogue, 2025

Donald Onuoah

This piece captures a moment of intense communication between two figures, their stylized faces and expressive eyes conveying a sense of deep emotion and connection.

Tribal Figures, 2025

Donald Onuoah

A compelling work that portrays three abstract figures with bold, simplified features, their forms emerging from a richly textured and fragmented background.

Urban Grid, 2025

Donald Onuoah

This piece is an exploration of urban life, using a grid-like composition and distressed textures to create a powerful, abstract representation of a cityscape.

The City Scape, 2025

Donald Onuoah

A captivating work that uses a heavily textured surface to evoke the feeling of an urban landscape, blending abstract forms with a sense of gritty reality.

Side Of Thought, 2025

Donald Onuoah

A face emerges in shades of grey, abstract and angled-turned just enough to make you wonder what it sees. Side of Thought captures that in-between moment: not fully forward, not fully away. In monochrome, emotion is distilled to form and shadow, allowing quiet tension to speak. It's a study of presence that doesn't need color to feel full.

Seen, 2025

Donald Onuoah

Bold, fragmented, yet focused the face meets your gaze without flinching. In layered lines and shifting forms, Seen strips away detail to reveal presence. Abstract yet intense, it challenges the viewer to hold eye contact, to feel what's unsaid. This is more than a face it's a mirror, a question, a quiet confrontation.

Hidden In Plain Sight, 2021

Donald Onuoah

The face is there but not fully. Lines blur, features fold, and identity slips through form. Hidden in Plain Sight is an abstract reflection of emotion held inward where what we show and what we feel quietly collide. In this piece, the face is a suggestion, not a statement. It asks us to look closer, then closer still.

Wrapped In Silence, 2022

Donald Onuoah

Against a glowing orange backdrop, figures stand fully wrapped faces hidden, bodies sealed in fabric or meaning. Wrapped in Silence speaks of protection, concealment, and identity layered in mystery. The orange burns like heat or hope, while the wraps suggest stories untold. Are they shielding themselves or being preserved? The painting leaves space for the viewer to wonder, and that's where its power lies.

The Quiet Tilt, 2025

Donald Onuoah

There's no visible glance, yet you feel the gaze gentle, downward, reflective. The face holds still, but emotion flows from its quiet tilt. The Quiet Tilt speaks to moments of inner pause, where the body hints at thoughts the face never fully shows. It's about feeling seen in the unseen- soft, solemn, and deeply human.

Whispers In Geometry, 2024

Donald Onuoah

Lines curve and collide like quiet conversations beneath the surface, forming a symphony of fractured light and hidden meaning. Whispers in Geometry invites the viewer to get lost in its layered textures where bold colors meet muted truths, and each shape carries memory, rhythm, and emotion. It's not just form it's a feeling waiting to be decoded.

Threaded Souls, 2025

Donald Onuoah

A patchwork of abstract faces emerges from the textured depth of jean stitched not with thread, but with emotions and expression Threaded Souls blurs the line between fabric and feeling, where each face whispers a story beneath the indigo weave. It's wearable history reimagined as art a denim diary of human connection.

Silent Vibrations, 2025

Donald Onuoah

A storm of colour, texture, and layered rhythm. Silent Vibrations is a pure abstract work that lets feeling speak louder than form; Painted on jean, its roughness opens into movement, where shapes dissolve and patterns collide. There are no faces here, just emotions stitched into chaos and calm. It's not what you see, it's what you feel.

Faces In The Fabric, 2025

Donald Onuoah

Layered with bold patterns and abstract expressions, this piece transforms denim into a living canvas. Each face some hidden, some pronounced emerges between stitched lines and rhythmic motifs. Faces in the Fabric speaks to the individuality within the collective, where no two patterns are alike, yet all are woven from the same cloth.