Esiri Erheriene-Essi (b. 1982) constructs figurative paintings that draw on the compositions of 20th century Black vernacular photography. Transforming snapshots from both community and family archives into large scale paintings, she reimagines scenes of daily life in explosive color and textured impasto. By her brush, domestic spaces are lively and intimate, celebrating Black life, ancestral memory, and complications of place.

Born in London to Nigerian parents, Erheriene-Essi grew up with a sense of bifurcated geographic identity. She lived between two homes, returning frequently from the UK to her parents’ native Warri and Lagos. These experiences piqued her interest in Black diasporic identities— a concept indispensable to her practice to this day. She received her MFA from the University of East London in 2006, and currently lives and works in Amsterdam.