Nanci Amaka is an interdisciplinary conceptual artist exploring ideas surrounding trauma, memory, and the liminal space between experience and language. Working from the theory that traumatic events challenge perceptions of power, autonomy, and identity; her work explores displacement due to widespread ecological destruction and global warfare – as well as the effects of traumatic memories on the human body and mind. Her performances are poetic narratives of memory retrieval and inspection that investigate limits of vulnerability and social empathy.
Nanci Amaka (b. 1982) was born in Nigeria and spent her formative years in a rural rainforest village in south eastern Nigeria. Emigrating to the United States in 1993, she received a BA in Visual Critical Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA from California College of the Arts. The artist now lives and works in Hawaii.
