Diana Ejaita

Villa Romana Fellow 2023

Italy

Diana Ejaita is an artist, textile designer and illustrator, mother living between Berlin, Italy and Lagos. Her practice encompasses installation, illustration, and textile design to reinvigorate visual storytelling traditions of her African lineage. As a Nigerian-Italian Diasporic artist, Ejaita’s works are concerned with shaping notions of belonging while also revitalizing aesthetic genealogies from the African continent. This oscillation between worlds is reflected in her visual reinterpretation of stories, such as those by Nigerian authors Amos Tutuola and Chinua Achebe, or narrative techniques found in West African textiles. Working with recordings made during residencies in Nigeria and Burkina Faso, Ejaita centres the intergenerational power of stories passed on via oral traditions.She is currently one of the fellows in residence for the Villa Romana Prize 2023 in Florence.