CHIDINMA DUREKE
Born in Washington, DC, to parents of Igbo descent, Dureke was raised between America and Nigeria. She creates multi-layered mixed media oil paintings, weaving together everyday materials found across multiple geographies and metropolitan cities. Dureke recombines various domestic materials as props for collage, painting, and drawing, disassembling plastic food packaging, shipping cardboard, and newspaper materials. Separating fruit from plastic and text from newspaper headlines and sewing the quotidian into canvas, what manifests are figural fragments of her dual identity. She depicts Black figures staged with fragments of exterior and interior living spaces. Even with the bittersweet taste of the diasporic experience, she synthesizes these elements into a lived-in and liminal psychological space, striving to produce an intimate spiritual or magical light in her work, captured by Naples yellow, warm violets, and earthy greens. The supernatural light Dureke casts on these Afropolitan spaces reveals the interior self, achieving the personal without being anchored to a specific time or place.
Dureke has exhibited her work at The Peale Museum, Howard Community College, Yale University, Dwight Hall: Center for Public Service & Social Justice, New Haven, CT, Asian Fusion Gallery; Washington, DC, Super Wonder Gallery; Toronto, Canada, among others. She is the recipient of The Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship, 2025-2027, Washington D.C.; Liu Shiming Art Grant, 2023 Cohort, New York, NY; Maryland Institute College of the Art, 2024 Graduate Research Development Grant, Baltimore, MD; and the ColorCreative 2023 Find Your People Program Fellowship in Los Angeles, California. In 2025, her work was commissioned by Issa Rae and Denise Davis for the Sony Pictures film One of Them Days, directed by Lawrence Lamont, starring SZA and Keke Palmer.
SOLO EXHIBITION
2022 Asian Fusion Gallery, Shipped And Sold, Washington D.C.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Washington Hilton, Reckoning With Bloom, Washington, D.C.
2026 Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship, new.now. (2026), Washington, D.C.
2025 The Baltimore City Crit Club, In Between the Lines, Baltimore, MD
2025 Maryland Institute College of Art, Faculty Exhibition 2025, Baltimore, MD
2025 The Peale, Chromafugue, Baltimore, MD
2024 Howard Community College, Liminal Resonance, Columbia, MD
2024 Maryland Institute College of the Arts, Caesura, Baltimore, MD
2024 Yale University, Dwight Hall: Center for Public Service & Social Justice, The JC Notebook, New Haven, CT
2024 Zo Gallery, Fragment(ed)ing, Baltimore, MD
2024 Maryland Institute College of the Arts Office of Culture & Identity, Dreams at Home, Baltimore, MD
2024 Studio Gallery DC, Diasporic Connections, Washington D.C.
2023 Sheila & Richard Riggs Gallery, Conjure, MICA Fred Lazarus IV Center, Baltimore, MD
2023 Montpelier Art Center, 54th Annual Laurel Art Guild Open Juried Exhibition, Laurel, MD
2023 Church of the Brethren Gallery, Human Rights, Civic Engagement, And Peacebuilding, Washington D.C.
2021 Black Girls Who Paint, We Roam Freely Showcase, Virtual
GRANTS, SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES
2026 (forthcoming) Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts and Agriculture (PMRCAA) Residency, Sisters, OR
2025 Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship, 2025 – 2027, Washington, D.C.
2024 The Graduate Research Development Grant, Spring 2024, Maryland Institute College of the Arts, Baltimore, MD
2023 ColorCreative Productions Fellowship, Find Your People Program, 2023 Cohort, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Leroy E. Hoffberger Program Graduate Merit Scholarship, 2023 – 2025, Baltimore, MD
2023 Liu Shiming Art Grant, 2023 Cohort, New York, NY
PRESS AND PUBLICATION FEATURES
2026 Maryland Institute College of Art – The Art of Seeing Between Worlds. April 2026. Digital
2025 East City Art – Hamiltonian Artists Announces 2025–2027 Fellows. November 2025. Digital
2025 ColorCreative – Find Your People Program – “One Of Them Days” Movie. [Los Angeles] January 2025. Digital
2024 The Baltimore Banner – 7 Art Exhibits To See This Summer In The Baltimore Region. [Baltimore] June 2024. Digital
2024 BmoreArt – Seven Art Shows to See This Summer: June and July Exhibitions. [Baltimore] June 2024. Digital
2024 Yale University Press, Yale Law School, Justice Collaboratory, The Notebook, New Haven, CT. Print
2024 The Hollywood Reporter – “ColorCreative’s Find Your People Program Adds Composer Track for Year Two“. Digital
2024 The Washington Post – “In The Galleries: Artists Offer Social Commentary On Black Migrations”. Print/Digital
2023 The Hollywood Reporter – “Issa Rae’s ColorCreative Reveals Inaugural Find Your People Program Cohort”.
2021 BuzzFeed – “30 Paintings in 30 Days Painting Portrait Challenge”. Digital
2017 Washington Post – “Two sisters aim to bring a bit of Africa and some flavor, to D.C.” . Print/Digital
ARTIST TALKS AND WORKSHOPS
2026 Washington Hilton, Reckoning With Bloom, Washington, D.C.
2026 Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship, new.now. 2026, Washington, D.C.
2025 The Baltimore City Crit Club, In Between the Lines, Crit/Artist Talk, Baltimore, MD
2024 Kings Place, Big Picture Case Study: Empowering Filmmakers to Bring Their Vision to Life, Panel, Camden, London
2024 Church of the Brethren Gallery, Movements Unveiled: Colors in Motion, Group Exhibition, Artist Talk, Washington, D.C.
2024 Canva & ColorCreative, Art of the Pitch Presentation, Artist Talk/Panel, Virtual/Zoom
2024 Zo Gallery, Fragment(ed)ing, Closing Reception, Artist Talk, Baltimore, MD
2024 ColorCreative, Canva: FYPP Year 2 Art of the Pitch Workshop, Virtual/Zoom
2024 Liu Shiming Art Foundation Gallery, Innovative Narratives: Art Grants Talk, New York, NY
2024 Gateway Community College, The Community Vitality Roundtable Rundown, Yale University, Panel, New Haven, CT
2024 Studio Gallery DC, Closing Reception Artist Talk, Washington, D.C.
2023 ColorCreative, Pitch Presentation, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Church of the Brethren Gallery, Human Rights, Civic Engagement, And Peacebuilding, Artist Talk, Washington, D.C.
2022 Asian Fusion Gallery, Shipped And Sold, Artist Talk, Washington, D.C.
2021 Old Greenbelt Theatre, TITLES, Artist Talk, Greenbelt, MD
INTERVIEWS
2026 Maryland Institute College of Art – The Art of Seeing Between Worlds. [Baltimore, MD] April 2026. Digital
2024 Liu Shiming Art Grants 2023 Recipient Interview with Chidinma Dureke, [New York, NY] July 2024
