About
Arit Emmanuela Etukudo is a Nigerian-American self-portrait Moving Image Installation and Performance Artist whose practice deals with the fluidity and metamorphosis of Black identity. Etukudo earned her BA in Cinematic Arts from University of Maryland Baltimore county and her MFA in Fine Art from Nottingham Trent University. She has earned achievements such as a 2025 Odyssee Residency, 2024 VCCA Fellowship, 2023 MacDowell Fellowship, the 2020 Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant, 2019 NAE Future Exhibition Prize, and the 2017 IndieCapitol Award for Best Experimental/Animated film. Her work has been exhibited globally at venues like The Peale Museum (Baltimore, MD), New Art Exchange (Nottingham, UK), and Kultur Im Zentrum (Giesse, Germany). She is a current Visiting Lecturer at University of Maryland Baltimore County and an Adjunct Professor at Stevenson University.Research interests
My Research interest surround the Black Radical Imagination and how it explores the fluidity and metamorphosis of Black identity. I unearth and uphold AfroFrequency by combining self-portraits, moving images, installations,poetry, performance, and soundscapes to delve into the ontology, mysticism, history, and transcendental realities that form the core of AfroExistence. Using imagination to emancipate identity by challenging conformity, I prompt viewers to reimagine narratives shaping their existence. I explore AfroFrequency not as an extension of Western ideas of the future but as the magic that lies at the root of African existence and self-retrieval. My work is a meeting place for transformation and antiquity. I examine the fluidity and metamorphosis of Black identities by transporting metaphysical moments within my body onto the physical and digital space. Thus,creating a communion between my body, its subconscious identities, and its witnesses.Teaching interests
Film and PhotoExperimental Film
Installation Art
Creative Writing
Education
- MFA, Fine Arts — Nottingham Trent University (2019)
- Other, Plastiques (Fine Art) — École Supérieure des Beaux-arts, TALM (2019)
- BA, Visual Arts — University of Maryland Baltimore County (2016)