Tate Britain’s Art Now Marks 30 Years with a New Work by Onyeka Igwe

This autumn, with the lead support of the Bukhman Foundation, Tate Britain will premiere a new film installation by Onyeka Igwe, titled our generous mother. The work continues Igwe’s interest in exploring archives and unravelling histories, in this case focused on the university in Nigeria where the artist’s mother studied in the 1970s.

The exhibition is the latest instalment in Art Now, Tate Britain’s long-running programme of free contemporary exhibitions. Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Art Now continues to showcase emerging talent and new developments in the British art scene.

Igwe’s new work explores the University of Ibadan, the oldest degree-awarding institution in Nigeria. Moving through the university’s tropical modernist architecture, the film traces the building’s personal and political histories, from its colonial roots through national independence, civil war and towards the present day. It presents many contradictory accounts of the place, blurring fiction with reality, analogue with digital, and fragmentation with unity.

Visitors experience the film through a series of immersive and shifting formats, from sculptural and projected forms to a large cinematic display, reflecting the complexity and layered histories of the university. Across all these different iterations of her work, Igwe draws from her own interest in radical filmmaking to deconstruct the history of the University of Ibadan, inviting us to step into the multiple narratives presented across the space.

The exhibition opens on September 19, 2025 and runs until May 17, 2026. Admission free

About Onyeka Igwe
Onyeka Igwe was born in London, where she continues to live and work. Her work has been the subject of recent exhibitions at MoMA PS1 in New York, Bonington Gallery in Nottingham and Peer in London. She has also been included in group exhibitions at venues including Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, South London Gallery, Museum of Modern Art Warsaw and Haus der Kunst in Munich, as well as at the Lagos Biennial and in the Nigerian Pavillion at the Venice Biennale, and at numerous film festivals around the world.

About Tate Britain’s Art Now Program
Since the 1990s, Tate Britain’s Art Now exhibitions have recognised talent at its outset and provided a launch pad for artists who have gone on to become established figures on the international art scene. Over the last 30 years, the series has been an important public platform for the likes of Tacita Dean, Ed Atkins, Fiona Banner, Hurvin Anderson and Doris Salcedo

Images

Onyeka Igwe, our generous mother 2025. © Onyeka Igwe