PDF FEATURES
MEDINA DUGGER (b. Corpus Christi, Texas, USA)
Medina is an artist, writer and creative empowerment mentor whose work supports neurodivergent creatives in reclaiming self-trust, expressive freedom, and a grounded sense of belonging. Following her own late diagnosis, her practice recognizes neurodivergence as a form of creative intelligence — one that shapes perception, symbolism, and connection in ways that expand how art can be made and experienced.
Her multidisciplinary work spans photography, collage, painting, video, and animation. A graduate of the Spéos Photographic Institute in Paris, she spent over a decade in Lagos, Nigeria, working as both artist and curator with the African Artists’ Foundation and LagosPhoto Festival. This period fostered a collaborative, culturally embedded approach to image-making — one that honors African visual traditions and reframes diasporic aesthetics with contemporary nuance.
The daughter of political activists and authors, Medina’s art is informed by deep spiritual inquiry, and social imagination. Alongside these influences, she has pursued studies in Vedic and West African ritual lineages. These explorations enrich the spiritual and symbolic layers of her work and mentorship, emphasizing embodiment, intuition, and the wisdom carried through ancestral memory.
Steeped in dialogue across cultures and consciousness, her work positions itself as both critique and invitation — a pathway toward collective renewal through the honoring of identity, story, and sensory truth.
Her exhibitions include Bozar Expo, Untitled Miami, and Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with features in Vogue, Smithsonian Magazine, and National Geographic. She received First Prize in the Magnum Photography Award (2017).
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Fitchburg Art Museum
General Mills Private Art Collection
Fondation Zinsou, Benin
Angeline Scherf (curator Louis Vuitton Foundation, 2020)
SOLO EXHIBITION
2019 INVESTEC Cape Town Art Fair, Art Twenty One Gallery, solo ft. Chroma: An Ode to J.D. Ojeikere (Chroma)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Pensiericorrenti Festival, Puglia, in Valle d’Itria, ft. Enshroud
Inverted Safari, Manege, St Petersburg Russia, ft. Enshroud
2022 University of Houston, College of Arch & Design, ft. Chroma & Chromatin
2021 Guernsey Photography Festival, ft. Enshroud
2020 Fund for Global Human Rights, Face to Face, London, ft. Enshroud
Floor One 9, Art Twenty One Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria ft. Chroma
2019 Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts), Berlin, ft unVeiled & Queering Spaces
Art Summit Nigeria, ft. unVeiled
2018 MoAD (Museum of the African Diaspora - A Smithsonian Affiliate) Digitalia San Francisco, ft. Chromatin
Art Miami Catherine Edelman Gallery, ft. Chroma
IAF Basel Basel Switzerland, ft. Chroma
Catherine Edelman Gallery, How do you see me now? Chicago, ft. Chroma
Voies Off Festival, Les Rencontres d’Arles, ft. Chroma
Les Balades, Photographiques De Daoulas, France. Medina Dugger: Chroma (Ville de Daoulas) & J.D. Okhai Ojeikere: Hairstyles
(Abbaye de Daoulas)
2017 LagosPhoto Festival, ft video Chromatin
Odessa/Batumi Photo Days Festival ft. Chroma
2016 Bozar Expo, Dey Your Lane, Brussels, Belgium, ft. Funhouse
2012 LagosPhoto Festival, ft. Seven Days in the Life of Amos
2011 African Artists' Foundation ‘Female Artists', ft. Memory
Spéos, Galerie Arlatino, Arles France, ft. Boxed
PUBLICATIONS
2023
MUDEC (publication by Museum of Cultures of Milan) United Rainbow. Bartering Hunger with Hope (featured article & text)
2021
The National Geographic Celebrating the proud culture behind Nigerian Hairstyles, Print edition, July.
2020
The Guardian UK ft. Enshroud from Face to Face exhibition, Sept.
Europe Now Journal, Council for European Studies (CES), Enshroud, Jan.
2019
The Guardian UK, A celebration of Muslim women in Lagos – in pictures, Nov.
Times Literary Supplement (cover image), May.
ze.tt A tribute to the gorgeous hairstyles of Nigerian women, May.
Design Indaba, The African crown reimagined.
Smithsonian Magazine In Nigeria, the Veil Is a Fashion Statement, Artist Medina Dugger finds joy in a colorful yet complicated symbol of faith, March.
Google Arts & Culture ft. Chromatin.
The Art Momentum Medina Dugger: A kaleidoscope of almost audible colours, March.
2018
Something We Africans Got, Fractales et pratiques culturelles en Afrique.
BBC News, Chicago: Three artists challenging African-American stereotypes.
Chicago Tribune, Exhibition stares down portrayals of blackness in art history, corporate environments, Sept.
This is Colossal Nigerian Hair Culture Documented in Rainbow-Hued Portraits by Medina Dugger, Aug.
Art Africa ft Chromatin (cover) Issue 11, March.
2017
Vogue This Fashion-Forward Musician Is Nigeria’s Coolest Front Row Star, Nov.
Marie Claire South Africa, ft. Chroma, July.
Dazed, Beautiful photos bring ancient hair traditions to the future, July.
CNN Africa, June.
Collectible Dry Lagos is not a sleepy city, everyone here has somewhere to be pronto
2014
The New York Times Robert Sherrill, Author Who Skewered Right and Left, Dies at 89, Aug.
CURATORIAL
2018-2020 Co-Founder Lagos, Nigeria based company artoja.org
2017-Present Creative Consultant/Contributing Editor Moon Man Magazine for Moon Man Studios, UK
2015-Present Nominator for Prix Pictet, International Award for Photography
2011-2015 Curator, African Artists' Foundation/LagosPhoto festival, Lagos, Nigeria
STUDIES
2025
Restorative Hypnotherapy with Spiritual Hypnotherapist Leo Max
2024
Pain Reprocessing Therapy, Neuroplasticity Practitioner Training
The Art Students League of New York
2023 Creative Wellness Service Initiative (CWSI) with the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA)
2022 Certified 6th generation Usui Tibetan & Incan Q'ero Shamanic Reiki Masters
2010 Spéos Photographic Institute, Paris France
2011 Internship with Philippe Bachelier/Sebastião Salgado, Paris France
2006 California State University Fresno, Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Employed Neonatal ICU Nurse at Valley Children's Hospital 2006-2010
