Drawing from Flora Nwapa’s 1966 novel, Efuru, this exhibition takes its name and spirit from a woman who exists beyond the narrow definitions of fulfilment imposed upon her. Efuru is beautiful, capable, generous, and deeply rooted in her community. Though her marriages fail and she is at times misunderstood or even vilified, she is ultimately chosen by the Woman of the Lake, a goddess of wealth, beauty, depth, and abundance. Through this devotion, Efuru finds renewal, meaning, and vindication. Her worth is not diminished by rejection; it is affirmed through alignment with her true self and with a feminine power that exists beyond societal approval.
At its heart, Efuru and the Woman of the Lake is an ode to the strength of women; in communion with themselves and with one another. One of the book’s most resonant threads is its attention to everyday womanhood: women seen not only in moments of crisis or transcendence, but in the quiet intimacy of daily life, labour, conversation, care, and companionship. While Efuru anchors the narrative, it is through her relationships with other women: mothers, traders, friends, and elders, that we are invited into the social and emotional landscape of her world. This exhibition echoes that thread, with many of the works depicting women and girls simply living, working, gathering, and being.
Across the exhibition, women appear in community: Polly Alakija’s piece showing girls embracing, Theresa Luck-Akinwale’s women selling goods, and other figurative works reflect shared labour, mutual dependence, and collective presence. These scenes resonate strongly with Olufunke’s The Alhajas, which draws on the metaphor of the three-legged pot, a reminder that stability is never singular, and that we are only as strong as the support systems that hold us up. This idea of interdependence runs as a quiet but persistent current throughout the exhibition.
For many of the artists, this commitment to community extends beyond subject matter into practice. Ndidi Emefiele’s work centres exclusively on Black women, creating imagined spaces where they exist freely, confidently, and without constraint. Her works embodying resilience and self-protection within a misogynistic social landscape. Ndidi’s paintings, such as the Untitled girl with the balloon featured in this exhibition, celebrate intimacy, autonomy, and self-possession. Similarly, Angela Isiuwe’s practice emphasises women as fundamental to society, portraying their strength, vulnerability, success, and pain with equal clarity. Her work insists on dignity and complexity, offering a powerful counterpoint within Nigeria’s deeply patriarchal context.
Theresa Luck-Akinwale’s Buruku – The Occult introduces a spiritual register that mirrors Efuru’s own calling. Through image and a beautifully written accompanying poem, the work depicts a scene of ritual devotion, beings appeasing a deity through dance, chant, and offering. This echoes Efuru’s initiation into the service of the Woman of the Lake, who gives not only gifts, but also mandates: devotion, discipline, and alignment with a deeper spiritual order. In both, spirituality is not spectacle, but communion. It is an exchange grounded in reverence, responsibility, and belonging.
The Woman of the Lake functions throughout the exhibition as both symbol and mirror. She reflects the belief that women already carry within themselves the resources they need to thrive: wisdom, creativity, intuition, endurance, softness, and strength. Rather than contorting themselves to meet patriarchal measures of success, this exhibition poses an alternative; embracing femininity fully and learning to live , build, and dream, in community with one another.
With artists spanning different ages, mediums, and practices, From Ladi Kwali’s delicate and masterfully crafted pottery to the meticulously painted pieces by contemporary artist Haneefah Adam, Efuru and the Woman of the Lake brings together a community of women whose works speak across generations and experiences. Through material and technique, storytelling and memory, these artists themselves become living archives of the lived experiences of women, bearing witness to what has been endured, imagined, protected, and transformed. Together, they form a multigenerational dialogue that honours women’s inner worlds while affirming their agency to shape their own futures.
Efuru and the Woman of the Lake ultimately imagines a space of return and renewal: to self, to sisterhood, and to the deep knowing that women, like the lake itself, are vast, layered, and endlessly sustaining.
