Castlefield Gallery Associates Spotlight: Chidimma Urunwa

This month, we have asked Chidimma Urunwa to contribute to our Castlefield Gallery Associates Spotlight series, in which current Castlefield Gallery Associates share their thoughts on what the programme offers and how it has been useful for them.

Can you tell us a little bit about your practice?

My practice grows out of lived experience. It is highly influenced by travel, memory, history, religion, politics, nature, movement, culture and tradition. I work mainly with oil on canvas, a medium that allows me to build textured surfaces. My style is influenced by surrealism and expressionism. Painting has always been a place of refuge for me, an escape and a way of understanding myself and the world around me.

As an Igbo woman from Eastern Nigeria, growing up in a deeply traditional environment shaped how I understand womanhood, being a girl child, belonging, and expectation as a young girl. My paintings often sit in the quiet space between what the girl child and women are taught to be and what they long to become (freedom). Traveling and now living in the West has added another layer to this inquiry, placing my identity in constant conversation with new cultures, values, and ways of seeing. This shift has made me more aware of contrast and overlap, deepening my exploration of self, displacement, womanhood, femininity and the evolving nature of belonging. At its heart, my practice is driven by questioning, challenging cultural norms, systems of subjugation and gender inequality.