One Painting, One Word, Endless Debate, Inside Bramix's Feminism

By Udemma Chukwuma

Art is often at its most powerful when it asks difficult questions rather than offering comfortable answers. In Feminism (2026), Bayelsa-based artist Wilcox Bralatei Zacchaeus, popularly known as Bramix, presents a visually striking painting that explores how gender equality, cultural identity, and womanhood are being renegotiated in contemporary African society.

The painting draws on personal experience. Bramix says Feminism was shaped by a past relationship and by patterns he’s observed in others. “This painting was inspired by my ex-partner and my observations of other people's relationships,” he says.

Executed in acrylic on canvas, the work immediately commands attention. A woman in a striking red dress sits elegantly in a richly furnished interior, her face hidden behind a book featuring Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. A glass of wine in one hand; books fill the shelves behind her; an African mask quietly occupies the background. Working predominantly in monochrome, punctuated by carefully placed accents of red, Bramix builds a dramatic atmosphere that draws viewers into the painting’s layered symbolism, an atmosphere achieved not through textured canvas but through his own impasto technique.

“I chose acrylic because of its fast-drying nature, which allows me to paint fast and also create texture,” he explains. “The painting was not done on textured canvas; the acrylic created the texture because I use impasto techniques.” 

Every object in the composition carries deliberate weight. The books represent knowledge and education; Marilyn Monroe stands for the pull of Western popular culture; the African mask anchors the work in African identity and heritage, staging a visual dialogue between tradition and imported ideals. The bookshelf, Bramix says, raises an uncomfortable question: can too much education become a burden? The wine signals refined taste and aspiration; the laptop represents ambition and career drive; the book obscuring the woman’s face represents, in his words, “her attempt to navigate and live out a foreign, Westernised lifestyle within an African environment.”  Even the red dress is symbolic: "It signifies how sexy and classy she can be. It also means intelligence is sexy.”

Feminism has already drawn attention beyond the studio. The painting was exhibited at a Pan-African Circle of Artists exhibition in Port Harcourt, Nigeria and is currently on display at Moriri Gallery, where it occupies a prominent position at the gallery’s entrance, a space reserved for works that immediately capture visitors' attention.

“The painting was placed in the first entrance of the gallery where they normally keep their best works to catch the attention of the audience once they step foot in the gallery,” Bramix says. "The response was amazing, and lots of people engaged in heated conversation."

The piece is currently available for acquisition. Measuring 4x5ft, Feminism is priced at US$1,000.

But it’s the artist’s statement accompanying the painting that has generated the most discussion. Contrary to what the title might suggest, Bramix insists the work isn’t an attack on women’s ambition.

“There is nothing bad for a woman to chase a career, dream big and achieve her goals. There is absolutely nothing wrong for a woman to be highly educated, working, famous, influential, independent and making her own money.”

His concern, he says, lies elsewhere: “It's bad when all of those qualities influence her negatively psychologically, to be arrogant, disrespectful, proud and not submissive to a male.”

Bramix is careful to distinguish his critique from an attack on feminism’s origins. “Feminism is a social, political and cultural movement that advocates for gender equality... it seeks to ensure everyone, regardless of gender, has equal rights, opportunities and respect. Feminism isn’t about ‘women being better than men’ or ‘hating men’; it’s about advocating for fairness and equality for all genders.”

His objection is to what he sees as a drift from that founding principle toward something closer to a contest. “The painting doesn't criticise feminism but rather explains its real meaning," he says, arguing that what many African women now understand feminism to mean is closer to “not being submissive to a man,” which is what the painting pushes back against. He goes further, describing what he calls a pattern of women pursuing success “to show supremacy” over men rather than for self-improvement, a shift he blames for rising divorce rates and single motherhood, which he calls “a lifestyle that was very rare in Africa.”

For Bramix, the resolution isn’t hierarchy but complementarity. “Everyone needs to be treated equally, but we also need to acknowledge that our Creator didn't create us the same; there is strength and weakness in being female, same as being male. Both must acknowledge their gender abilities... coming together creates a balance.”

He sees art as a tool for provoking exactly this kind of reckoning. “As an artist, I think art has a lot of roles to play in addressing our societal issues... In China there is a proverb that says image speaks louder than words.”

For feminists specifically who encounter the painting, his message is equally direct: “Every continent has their way of life, and in Africa, feminism is not our way of life... any foreign lifestyle will be repelled because the mindset is not wired to think that way. It's like selling dog meat in America.”

Whether one agrees with his conclusions or not, Feminism succeeds in provoking reflection. Through its symbolism, dramatic contrasts, and carefully constructed composition, the painting invites viewers to confront questions of culture, identity, equality, and family at a moment of rapid social change.

A graduate of Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island (Class of 2014), Bramix is a Bayelsa-born painter and draughtsman who has been practising professionally since graduating. He is recognised for his command of light and shadow, drawing on the chiaroscuro techniques of Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn. His monochromatic works, punctuated by selective colour, explore human relationships, consciousness, and cultural relevance through realism and expressive impasto. Feminism took roughly two months to complete.

Whether read as a critique, a cultural reflection, or a provocation, the artist doesn't ask viewers to agree with his opinion, only to think, question, and take part in a conversation that is still shaping societies across the continent.

To see more of Bramix's work, follow him on Instagram at @bramixart