June 10, 2026 - Sept. 2026
David Uzochukwu: Bodies of Water
David Uzochukwu: Bodies of Water is a poetic meditation on identity, migration, and belonging. This exhibition marks the artist’s first solo museum show, introducing audiences to his visionary photographic practice. Drawing on mythology, fantasy, and personal and collective histories, Uzochukwu presents hybrid beings—part human, part animal—who inhabit surreal, dreamlike landscapes. Adorned with fins, scales, and other features, these figures are equipped to thrive in challenging waters. The resulting images evoke the adaptability and resilience of diasporic communities navigating environments often marked by hostility and exclusion. Within these imagined worlds, Blackness resists simple definition: it is fluid, shifting, and vibrantly alive.
Exhibition Programs
Artist
Curator
Artist
David Uzochukwu
David Uzochukwu is a Berlin-based 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. His photographs are held in public collections including Collection Pictet (Switzerland), Musée de la Photographie de Saint-Louis (Senegal), and The Wedge Collection (Canada). 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.
David Uzochukwu
David Uzochukwu is a Berlin-based 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. His photographs are held in public collections including Collection Pictet (Switzerland), Musée de la Photographie de Saint-Louis (Senegal), and The Wedge Collection (Canada). 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.
Efe Igor Coleman
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.
Curator
Efe Igor Coleman
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.
Program Recordings
Resources
The 901 Black American Portraits Soundtrack
Listen to a soundtrack of Memphis music that exemplifies Black Love, Power, and Joy. The 901 Black American Portraits Soundtrack celebrates the vibrant legacy and future of Black musicians in the city of Memphis. This playlist was curated by Jared “Jay B” Boyd, a Memphis-based multimedia artist, journalist, DJ, and on-air personality.
MCA Exhibition Questionnaire
Help us generate the fullest picture possible of the MCA experience.
Submitting a questionnaire, which includes a request for an image of an artwork, is essential to be considered for part of the exhibition.
Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?
The American art theorist Linda Nochlin (1931-2017) posed this question as the title of a pioneering article in 1971. This essay was considered one of the first major works of Feminist art history, it has become a set text for those who study art internationally, and it is influential in many other fields.