Category: Art & Design

Mavic Chijioke Okeugo Presents Where Light Learns Our Faces Fine Art Photography Solo Exhibition | January 18, 2026 | The African Centre, London

London, UK Fine art photographer Mavic Chijioke Okeugo presents Where Light Learns Our Faces, a solo photography exhibition opening on Sunday, January 18, 2026, at The African Centre in London. The exhibition will launch with a private view from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM, welcoming invited guests to experience the work ahead of the public opening. Where Light Learns Our Faces is a contemplative photographic series that explores identity, presence, and the quiet dialogue between light and the human face. Through carefully composed portraits, Okeugo examines how illumination shapes perception revealing emotional depth, vulnerability, and inner stillness. Light functions not merely as a technical tool, but as an active participant, engaging with the subject in moments of introspection and recognition. Rooted in an intimate and deliberate visual language, Okeugo’s photography foregrounds Black subjects with dignity and attentiveness, challenging habitual modes of seeing. The exhibition reflects on how faces hold memory, history, and becoming, and how photography can serve as a space of pause in an accelerated visual culture. This solo exhibition marks a significant moment in Okeugo’s practice, presenting a cohesive body of work that invites viewers to slow down, look closely, and encounter portraiture as an act of connection rather than consumption. Exhibition Details Title: Where Light Learns Our FacesArtist: Mavic Chijioke OkeugoDate: Sunday, January 18, 2026Private View: 2:00 PMVenue: The African CentreAddress: 66 Great Suffolk Street, London SE1 0BL

La Mode Magazine Interview: In Conversation with Mavic Chijioke Okeugo

Ahead of his solo photography exhibition, January 18, 2026, La Mode Magazine Interviewed Mavic Chijioke Okeugo. La Mode Magazine: Mavic, you’re presenting a solo exhibition titled Where Light Learns Our Faces on January 18th at The African Centre in Central London. What does this moment represent for you? Mavic Chijioke Okeugo: This exhibition feels like a pause I’ve been working toward for a long time. It’s not just about showing photographs it’s about creating a space where people can sit with faces, with presence, with light. Showing this body of work at The African Centre is deeply meaningful because it’s a place rooted in Black histories, conversations, and futures. It feels aligned with the spirit of the work. La Mode Magazine: The title Where Light Learns Our Faces is striking and poetic. How did it come about? Mavic: I wanted the title to suggest patience. Light is usually seen as something that exposes instantly, but I’m interested in light as something that studies, that listens. These photographs were made slowly, with care. The title speaks to the idea that our faces especially Black faces are not immediately legible or consumable. They deserve time to be learned. La Mode Magazine: Your practice centers on fine art photography, particularly portraiture. What draws you to the face as a primary site of exploration? Mavic: The face holds contradiction. It’s where vulnerability and strength coexist. Historically, Black faces have been overexposed or misread, so I’m interested in reclaiming the face as a space of autonomy. In my work, the face isn’t performing. It’s resting, thinking, being. Photography allows me to honor that stillness. La Mode Magazine: How does light function in this exhibition technically and conceptually? Mavic: Technically, I work with controlled, intentional lighting, often minimal. Conceptually, light becomes a collaborator. It doesn’t dominate the subject; it responds to them. Sometimes it reveals, sometimes it withholds. That balance mirrors how we come to know people in real life never all at once. La Mode Magazine: There’s a quiet intensity in your images. What emotional experience do you hope viewers walk away with? Mavic: I hope they feel slowed down. We’re used to consuming images rapidly, scrolling past faces without consequence. This exhibition asks viewers to look longer, to recognize the humanity in front of them, and maybe to reflect on how they look at others in their daily lives. La Mode Magazine: The African Centre is a powerful cultural venue. How does the space shape the exhibition? Mavic: The African Centre carries history and intention. Exhibiting there situates the work within a larger diasporic dialogue. The space encourages reflection it’s not neutral, and that matters. The photographs don’t exist in isolation; they’re in conversation with the people who walk through that building and the stories they carry. La Mode Magazine: What can audiences expect from the private view on January 18th? Mavic: The private view is intimate by design. It’s a moment to encounter the work quietly, without distraction. I’ll be present, but the focus is on the images and the conversations they spark between viewers, and within themselves. La Mode Magazine: Finally, what does success look like for you with Where Light Learns Our Faces? Mavic: Success is someone standing in front of a photograph and feeling seen rather than entertained. If the work lingers with people if it stays with them beyond the gallery then it’s done what it needed to do. Exhibition DetailsWhere Light Learns Our FacesSolo Fine Art Photography ExhibitionJanuary 18, 2026Private View: 2pmThe African Centre66 Great Suffolk StreetLondon SE1 0BL, United Kingdom

Ųmų Anya (Children of the Eye): A Solo Exhibition by Mavic Chijoke Okeugo

Lagos, Nigeria Rele Gallery presents Ųmų Anya (Children of the Eye), a solo exhibition by fine art photographer Mavic Chijoke Okeugo, on view from April 6–12, 2021. The exhibition introduces a new body of work that meditates on childhood, perception, and the profound act of seeing through youthful eyes. Translated from Igbo, Ųmų Anya Children of the Eye encapsulates the exhibition’s central concerns with vision, awareness, and emotional insight. Okeugo positions children as both subjects and storytellers, crafting images that exist in the liminal space between reality and imagination. Meticulously composed and richly textured, the photographs carry a painterly sensibility that invites sustained looking and quiet reflection. Across scenes of play, movement, and stillness, the works consider how children interpret the world and how memory preserves these early modes of perception. Eschewing sentimentality, Okeugo presents childhood as a site of strength, curiosity, and calm authority encouraging viewers to reassess their own perspectives and reconnect with the discipline of attentive seeing. Installed within Rele Gallery’s minimalist setting, Ųmų Anya (Children of the Eye) unfolds as an immersive visual experience where color, form, and narrative converge with clarity and intent. The exhibition marks a significant moment in Okeugo’s artistic trajectory and contributes meaningfully to contemporary conversations in African fine art photography. The exhibition is open to the public April 6–12, 2021, at Rele Gallery, Lagos. Exhibition DetailsArtist: Mavic Chijoke OkeugoTitle: Ųmų Anya (Children of the Eye)Dates: April 6–12, 2021Venue: Rele Gallery, Lagos