DAVID UZOCHUKWU, Bodies of Water

86pp., colour illus., paperback, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Tennessee, 2026

ISBN: 9781917976121

Published to accompany the exhibition, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Tennessee, June-September 2026, and Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, October 2027-January 2028.

Weaving together African, Greek, and American mythologies with historical references, photographer David Uzochukwu explores water as a force of contradiction, connecting histories of forced and voluntary migration and displacement across the African diaspora, and enabling adaptation and transformation as an act of survival in unstable and shifting conditions.

Includes essays by Efeoghene Igor Coleman, Ekow Eshun, Stefanie Hessler and Troy L. Wiggins.

"Water remembers what history tries to erase. It carries the weight of forced crossings, the memory of forgotten voyages, and the fluid promise of transformation. In Bodies of Water David Ụzọchukwu constructs a luminous, speculative cosmos where the ocean ceases to be a site of historical tragedy and becomes a cradle for radical adaptation ... Through his lens, water acts as an active, metamorphic force, sculpting hybrid beings equipped to thrive in shifting, uncertain futures." artmag

David Uzochukwu is an Austrian-Nigerian artist, photographer, and filmmaker whose work explores identity, cultural memory, and history. His images have appeared in the British Journal of Photography, i-D, Dazed, and have been exhibited at Saatchi Gallery (London), Fotografiska (New York and Shanghai), and Museo de Arte Moderno (Mexico City), among other institutions. A 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Uzochukwu has directed films such as Götterdämmerung (2020) and Civil Dusk (2021), and episodes of Black Fruit, which premiered in 2024 at the Tribeca Film Festival. Bodies of Water is his debut solo museum exhibition.

Efeoghene Igor Coleman is an independent curator and scholar specializing in African diasporic art. She holds a Ph.D. in History from Yale University, with a certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She has served as Blackmon Perry Assistant Curator of African American Art and Art of the African Diaspora at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, as well as Assistant Director of Academic Engagement at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.