Chika Idu’s 'Pure Water' Submerged Figures, Surfaced Truths

By Udemma Chukwuma 

Chika Idu’s Pure Water, a solo exhibition, returns to a recurring subject in the painter’s work: the human figure suspended beneath water. But this time, the imagery moves into sharper, more critical territory. His figures drift weightlessly through clear water, rendered with a thick, gestural application of paint that makes the surface appear almost alive. There is something serene and liberating about these bodies as they move through the water, yet beneath that beauty sits a more complicated question about purity, freedom and the world we inhabit.

This September, SMO Contemporary Art and ARAMI bring Idu's new body of work to Lagos, opening Saturday, 5th September 2026, from 2pm to 5pm at ARAMI, 6th Floor, MHQ Building, 5 Providence Street, Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria. 

Built up through brush strokes, the surfaces of these paintings seem to move on their own; the ridges and drags of pigment mimic the shifting currents and refracted light one might see just beneath the surface of the sea. The effect is immersive, almost tactile, placing the viewer inside the same liquid suspension as the subjects themselves. There’s an intentionality to how these figures move. They don’t sink or thrash; they drift, seemingly by choice, through a world the artist paints as pristine, wondrous, and harmonious. It is a vision of freedom rendered with real technical control.

But the title Pure Water carries a second, far less idyllic meaning, and that’s where the exhibition finds its critical edge. In Nigeria, “pure water” is the common name for the small plastic sachets of drinking water sold on nearly every street corner, a cheap and essential source of hydration for millions across the country’s densely populated cities. It is also one of the most visible forms of plastic waste in those same cities, piling up in gutters and waterways, clogging drainage systems and becoming a genuine environmental hazard that degrades the quality of urban life.

By pairing this loaded, everyday term with images of serene, weightless submersion, Idu sets up a pointed irony. The paintings acknowledge the gap between an aspiration toward a clean, balanced world and the polluted reality of the water sachets that share its name. His painted figures, innocent and youthful, adrift in what looks like an untouched blue expanse, become a kind of wish held against the odds: a rendering of liberty and adventure that persists despite life’s uncertain currents. Their weightlessness can therefore be read not simply as an escape, but as a longing for a world in which freedom, beauty and purity are still possible.

In that sense, Pure Water does not mark a sharp departure for Idu so much as a deepening of a visual language he has been refining across recent bodies of work: submerged bodies, painterly water, and a running tension between beauty and critique. What is new here is the specificity of the reference. Idu grounds an atmospheric, almost dreamlike series of paintings in a very concrete piece of Nigerian urban life, allowing something as ordinary as a sachet of drinking water to become a doorway into questions of environment, freedom, aspiration and the kind of world we choose to create.

Pure Water opens to the public on 5th September 2026 at ARAMI in Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria.

Chika Idu  (b. 1974, Delta State, Nigeria) is a Lagos-based artist celebrated for his evocative depictions of emotional silence, childhood memory, and female agency. A graduate of Auchi Polytechnic and founding member of the watercolour collective SABLE, he is known for his innovative technique, Light Against Visual Distortion, which uses sawdust to create ethereal images of children suspended in layered atmospheres. His globally acclaimed Swimmer Series explores the interplay of chaos and calm, often set against the watery backdrops of Lagos’s Makoko community. Idu currently teaches at Lycée Français Louis Pasteur in Lagos, Nigeria. and mentors emerging artists through various community initiatives.

Images courtesy of the artist. All rights reserved.

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