ABOUT

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Medina is an artist from California who studied at Spéos Photographic Institute in Paris, France (2010). She’s been based in Lagos, Nigeria since 2011. She works in a multitude of artistic mediums including photography, collage, painting, video and animated images/nfts. Medina’s thematic practice has been greatly shaped by the years she’s spent in Lagos and on the African continent where she seeks to undermine negative stereotypes and minimizing storylines common to Nigeria and Africa. Her work focuses on identity, tradition, style, the female form, acculturation, ethnocentrism, cultural homogenization, globalization, modernity and more recently, concepts addressing indigenous wisdom, healing and technology. Her work has been exhibited internationally including Untitled Miami, the Investec Cape Town Art Fair and featured in the National Geographic Magazine, Vogue, Smithsonian Magazine, CNN Africa, BBC News among other publications and has been collected by Fitchburg Art Museum, General Mills Private Art Collection and Fondation Zinsou.

Before turning her attention to her artistic practice, Medina spent 4 years in Lagos working as a project coordinator/curator for the African Artists’ Foundation and co-curator for the LagosPhoto Festival (2011-2015) organizing the foundation and festival programming. In 2015 Medina began creative consulting as contributing photo editor and content manager for Moon Man Studios, a concept studio in London that specializes in innovative art direction and creative production. In 2018, Medina co-founded ARTOJA, an online marketplace and creative production company for contemporary art and design in Africa.
 

Medina is represented by Art Twenty One in Lagos and SOART Gallery in Casablanca. 

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PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITIONS / AWARDS

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2022 University of Houston, College of Arch & Design. Group Show ft. Chroma & Chromatin Feb 2-30th

2021 Guernsey Photography Festival in September ft. ‘Enshroud’

2020 Face to Face exhibition, by the Fund for Global Human Rights, ft. 'Enshroud' at London, Kings Cross Tunnel & Central Saint Martins

2019 'unVeiled' screening at Lagos Art Summit, Lagos, Nigeria Oct 30-31st

2019 'unVeiled' screening via Queering Spaces with hFACTOR, Lagos @ M.Bassy Hamburg, May 12-21st

2019 Group Exhibition, Floor One Nine, at Art Twenty One Lagos

2019 CAP Prize Finalist for series 'Enshroud'

2019 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Feb 14-17, ft. Chroma 

2018 Untitled, Art Miami via Edelman Gallery, Chroma 

Finalist for the PHmuseum 2018 Women Photographers Grant

Winning placement in The Prix de la Photographie, Paris (P×3) 2018 

IAF Basel, 7th Festival of Contemporary Art, (Chroma), Sept 1-16, Basel, Switzerland

Group Exhibition, "How So You See Me", (Chroma) Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago Illinois, Sept

Voies Off Festival in Arles (Chroma), The Best of LensCulture: Volume 2, July 2018

Chemins du patrimoine en Finistère, Les Balades, Photographiques De Daoulas Medina Dugger (Chroma): Ville de Daoulas, France. March 29 - Nov 4th and J.D. Okhai Ojeikere (Hairstyles): Abbaye de Daoulas

2017 First Prize Magnum Photography Award 'Open' Category

Lensculture Portrait Award 'Juror's Pick'

Odessa/Batumi Photo Days Festival

2016 Bozar Expo, Brussels, Belgium, Group Exhibition 'Dey Your Lane', featuring Funhouse 

2012 LagosPhoto Festival, Seven Days in the Life of Amos

2011 African Artists' Foundation Female Artists' Group Exhibition, Memory

2011 Spéos Group Exhibition, Galerie Arlatino, Arles France, Boxed

2010 Winner of Challenge Monal French Fencing Federation Photography Competition 

PUBLICATIONS 

2021: National Geographic Magazine, July issue, Celebrating the proud culture behind Nigerian hairstyles 

2020: Plinth ‘The observer’ in us: Medina Dugger on art, activism, and optimism

Fund for Global Human Rights Interview: Lifting the Veil: Medina Dugger on her series Enshroud

The Guardian UK, Sept, ft. Enshroud from Face to Face exhibition, London, Kings Cross Tunnel & Central Saint Martins. https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-guardian/20200921/281603832896281

Europe Now Journal, Council for European Studies (CES), Enshroud, Jan. https:// www.europenowjournal.org/2020/01/15/enshroud/
2019: The Guardian UK, Nov A celebration of Muslim women in Lagos – in pictures
2019: Times Literary Supplement (cover image), May
2019: ze.tt, A tribute to the gorgeous hairstyles of Nigerian women, May. https://ze.tt/ein-tribut-an-die- prachtvollen-frisuren-nigerianischer-frauen/
2019: Design Indaba, The African crown reimagined. https://www.designindaba.com/articles/creative-work/ african-crown-reimagined
2019: Smithsonian Magazine, March: In Nigeria, the Veil Is a Fashion Statement, Artist Medina Dugger finds joy in a colorful yet complicated symbol of faith https://153200e0-893d-43c4-abf3-4a25d8f175a1.filesusr.com/ugd/ f92edf_96967961758d4e7c9df80074f60401b4.pdf
2019: Google Arts & Culture, ft. Chromatin. https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/chromatin-series-medina- dugger/lQG4Gt5GskgsBg?hl=en
2019: The Art Momentum, March: Medina Dugger: a kaleidoscope of almost audible colours. https://theartmomentum.com/medina-dugger/
2018: Something We Africans Got, Fractales et pratiques culturelles en Afrique. https://mail.google.com/mail/ u/0/#search/aalixkoffi%40gmail.com/FMfcgxvzLrLnfBCfNDwFGGDJJtSbNKMQ? projector=1&messagePartId=0.1.1
2018: WEPRESENT: ft Enshourd, Nov. https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/story/medina-dugger/
2018: BBC News, Chicago: Three artists challenging African-American stereotypes, Sept. https://www.bbc.com/ news/in-pictures-45473048
2018: Chicago Tribune, Exhibition stares down portrayals of blackness in art history, corporate environments, Sept. https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ott-how-do-you-see-me-gallery-0910-story.html
2018: This is Colossal, August: Nigerian Hair Culture Documented in Rainbow-Hued Portraits by Medina Dugger. https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2018/08/nigerian-hair-culture-by-medina-dugger/
2018: Art Africa: ft Chromatin (cover) Issue 11, March. https://artafricamagazine.org/product/art-africa- issue-11-2/ and https://artafricamagazine.org/art-on-a-loop/
2017: Vogue, This Fashion-Forward Musician Is Nigeria’s Coolest Front Row Star, Nov. https://www.vogue.com/ article/falana-lagos-fashion-design-week-2017
2017: Marie Claire SA, ft Chroma, July.
2017: Dazed, Beautiful photos bring ancient hair traditions to the future, July. https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/36740/1/medina-dugger-chroma-lagos-hair-braids-j-d-okhai-ojeikere
2017: CNN Africa, June. https://www.instagram.com/p/BUzKl-ylhrb/?hl=en
Collectible Dry, Lagos is not a sleepy city, everyone here has somewhere to be pronto! https:// www.collectibledry.com/featured/issue-4-is-out/
2014: The New York Times, Robert Sherrill, Author Who Skewered Right and Left, Dies at 89, Aug. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/us/robert-sherrill-author-who-skewered-right-and-left-dies-at-89.html
 

 

CREATIVE / CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE

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2018-ongoing Co-Founder Lagos, Nigeria based company artoja.org

2017-ongoing Creative Consultant/Contributing Editor Moon Man Magazine for Moon Man Studios, UK

2015-2021: Nominator for Prix Pictet, International Award for Photography

2013-2014: Co-Curator, LagosPhoto @ Joburg Art Fair

2012: Co-Curator, LagosPhoto @ GRID Bi-Annual International Photography Festival

2011-2014: Curator, African Artists' Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria

2011-2014: Co-Curator, LagosPhoto Festival, Lagos, Nigeria

 

STUDIES

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2021: Toronto School of Art

2010: Spéos Photographic Institute, Paris France

2011: Internship with Philippe Bachelier

2006: California State University Fresno, Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Employed as a neonatal intensive care nurse at Valley Children's Hospital 2006-2010. 

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