Beneath the Surface: Chika Idu's "Pure Water" Opens at ARAMI in Lagos

By Udemma Chukwuma

Today, a new exhibition opens above the waters of Lagos titled Pure Water, a solo show of about 30 paintings and portraits by Nigerian artist Chika Idu, at ARAMI Lagos, Nigeria, a fine-dining restaurant with rooftop views stretching across the Atlantic and the Lagos Lagoon. Presented by SMO Contemporary Art and ARAMI, the exhibition runs through November 30, 2026.

The show's title carries a deliberate double edge. On one hand, "pure water" nods to Idu's vision of ecological balance, the underwater world his figures inhabit, rendered in oil, acrylic, and delicate watercolour. A direct reference to the plastic drinking-water sachets sold across cities in Nigeria; the sachets clog drains and waterways and degrade urban life for millions. That tension between beauty and warning runs through the entire body of work.

Idu's paintings contrast portraits of African women and children against submerged swimmers drifting through a pristine underwater world, a visual space of freedom outside the constraints of life above the surface. His technique is distinctive: palette-knife layered currents give the water its own texture and motion, while an impasto style catches and bends light as if it were moving through liquid itself.

“Being in nature influences how I approach my work; I cannot tell a story from a third party. I want to see it, I want to be there, I want to experience it, so when I’m seeing it within me, I’m not lying; I’m being honest. As a result of that, I like to go to the beach, especially in this period where I’m painting beach scenes.”

The children and women in his portraits share a gaze that, as the artist's collaborators describe it, "defies all odds", rendered in paint. “Don’t paint for the market; there will always be a market. Even if you don’t sell now, you will sell; focus on discovering your true self, and then sharing it with everyone else,” the artist said.   

Idu calls his style: "light against visual distortion," a technique he traces back to a single night in his village as a schoolboy, when a passing motorcycle kicked up dust just as a car's headlights swept through it, dissolving the people caught in between into what he describes as hazy, drifting colour rather than recognisable human forms.

That accidental collision of light and particle sent him down a years-long path studying how light deflects off solid matter, eventually landing on canvas texturisation and palette-knife work as the way to recreate the effect, a technique he has now used for more than two decades. For his beach and water scenes specifically, he layers three tools: video, to capture the sea's constant, undramatic motion; photographs, for fine detail; and on-site drawings, to record how the moment felt as he encountered it. He does extensive research before starting any painting, he says, so that his narrative stays genuine and what he depicts remains authentic.

“I do a lot of research before any painting is done; I want to be able to say that, yes, my narrative is genuine.”

The exhibition also carries a weightier historical thread. During a visit to Martinique, Idu encountered monuments commemorating those forcibly transported across the Atlantic during the slave trade; that history now surfaces in his work alongside references to contemporary migration.

Scholar Prof. Frank A.O. Ugiomoh, formerly of the University of Port Harcourt, frames the throughline: different histories of displacement- the transatlantic slave trade, today's migrants, and Idu's painted women and children- aren't identical, but each belongs to an ongoing story of movement, vulnerability, and the search for freedom. In his reading, memory in Idu's work doesn't just look backwards; it shapes how the present is seen and the future imagined.

"There's a more personal current running beneath the work as well," Idu said. A psychologist who once analysed his output concluded that the portraits, the water paintings, and the swimmers were all, in effect, the same thing: an escape. Idu, who describes himself as not having been "a very social boy" growing up despite close relationships with his siblings, sees his paintings as having filled that space by bringing people together; creating, as he puts it, a platform for conversation. Many of the children he paints are shown playing in village ponds that, in reality, have since dried up or become polluted. His intention, he says, is to draw attention to what's been lost even as the paintings preserve a record of joy that may not last.

Accompanying the paintings is a short film, From Shore to Studio, which follows Idu along Nigeria's coastline and back into his studio, tracing the path from lived observation to finished canvas. Produced and directed by Chichi Ikpeama for SMO Contemporary Art.

Pure Water is curated by Sandra Mbanefo Obiago, Founder and Artistic Director of SMO Contemporary Art, the presenting organisation, which itself has roots in both visual art and film. SMO is an international platform based in Lagos that showcases modern and contemporary art from Africa and the diaspora to a global audience. Beyond curating exhibitions, the organisation runs public and private art events for leading and emerging talents. and has built a reputation for spotlighting overlooked artists who helped shape West Africa's contemporary art canon. SMO also offers specialised art advisory services, managing private and corporate collections with a strong emphasis on documentation and preservation, and regularly stages shows in unconventional venues tied to design, fashion, and hospitality, including ARAMI. "It is important that art brings hope and inspiration to our lives, while also reminding us of the plight of humanity, and the need to advocate for the environment," said Obiago.

The choice of venue is intentional, and dates back to ARAMI's founding. Restaurant Director Diana Nwandu has said that from the moment she took on the space, she knew she wanted it to double as a showcase for African art, and brought in Obiago, a longtime friend, to help realise that vision. Pure Water is ARAMI's second exhibition, with quarterly shows planned going forward. ARAMI itself is a fine-dining restaurant in the heart of Lekki Phase 1, offering an Asian fusion menu built around an authentic Teppanyaki experience, where contemporary technique meets more time-honoured culinary traditions. The space is designed for intimacy, whether for a quiet celebration or an evening of discovery, with tasting menus and à la carte offerings shaped by seasonal availability and sommelier-curated pairings.

From its rooftop, diners get sightlines over both the Atlantic Ocean and the Lagoon threading through Lagos, the very waterways at the heart of Idu's subject matter. Nwandu called the pairing a natural fit, noting that the exhibition's environmental themes align with ARAMI's own values and aspirations for a safe, healthy environment.

Idu's relationship with SMO stretches back nearly a decade, to a joint exhibition the two mounted together in 2016. At the opening, he credited the organisation with treating him with the same respect before and after his work gained international recognition, calling that consistency rare in Nigeria's art sector and holding SMO up as a model for how galleries and dealers ought to operate. He has also spoken about his broader creative philosophy: painting for his own satisfaction rather than the market, doing thorough research before any work begins, and deliberately leaving room for viewers to interpret his paintings differently rather than steering them toward a single reading; a divergence of views, he says, is what makes a piece interesting.

Pure Water, presented by SMO Contemporary Art and ARAMI, opens today with a public reception which runs from 2pm to 5pm at 5 Providence Street, Lekki, Lagos, and runs through November 30, 2026. It arrives at a moment when conversations about coastal ecology, urban pollution, and migration are increasingly entangled, and Idu's underwater world offers a way to hold all three at once, without losing sight of the human faces at the centre.

Images courtesy of  SMO Contemporary Art. All rights reserved.

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