Ekene Ijeoma
Exhibitions
Harmony Park in Inviting Light in Baltimore
Black Forest and Stone Circle Bench in Boston Public Art Triennial
Projects
Black Forest (2022-ongoing)
A Counting (2019-ongoing)
About
Bio
Ekene Ijeoma is a Nigerian-American conceptual artist who researches social, political, and environmental systems to poetically expose inequities and mutually empower communities. His multidisciplinary practice spans community-based landworks, interactive light installations, and data-driven performances that expand on Black American and African experiences, traditions, and symbols through design and technology.
Ijeoma’s interdisciplinary projects include community events where trees are planted for Black lives in green spaces across the US, jazz performances in which notes are removed from the Star-Spangled Banner at the increasing rate of incarceration in the US, interactive sculptures in which a wage-based height map of NYC is submerged in water at rising rent costs, participatory installation that invites participants to synchronize their breaths and energies with his and another that invites them to hold hands together to activate lights and symbols.
In 2025, he presented Stone Circle Bench 1 and Stone Circle Bench 2 for the inaugural Boston Public Art Triennial, which features 40 stone stools arranged around 2 trees planted in historically Black neighborhoods. Also recently commissioned for Dutch Design Week was Tree Grills, a silver mouth grill spelling "trees" that references the urban infrastructure used to protect tree roots. In Spring 2026, Ijeoma will present Harmony Park, a landwork transforming vacant lots in Baltimore into a community meadow and sculpture park. Commissioned for the exhibition Inviting Light and funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the park features two site-specific participatory installations, Energy Poles: Checkers and Sight Lines: Checkers, which invite neighbors to connect through touch and gaze.
His work has been presented by Boston Public Art Triennial (2025), Bloomberg Philanthropies (2025), Dutch Design Week (2025), Getty PST Art (2025), Onassis Foundation (2024), Van Alen Institute (2022), the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis (2021), Bemis Center for Contemporary Art (2021), Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2020), Contemporary Art Museum of Houston (2020), The Arts Club of Chicago (2019), The Kennedy Center (2019, 2017), Annenberg Space for Photography (2016), Neuberger Museum of Art (2016), Storefront for Art and Architecture (2015) and Museum of Modern Art (2015).
His work has also been supported by Architectural League of New York (2025), Opportunity Agenda (2025), Community Engagement (2025), MIT Media Lab (2018–2024), New York Foundation for the Arts (2022, 2016), New York State Council on the Arts (2021), Creative Capital (2019), Map Fund (2019), Wave Farm (2018), and The Kennedy Center (2017).
He studied Information Technology (BS) at Rochester Institute of Technology (2006) and Interaction Design (MS) at Domus Academy (2008) in Milan, Italy. From 2019–2024, he founded Poetic Justice, an MIT lab and program that reimagined social justice through the arts by producing works at the scale of systems. In 2022, he founded Black Forest, a multisite participatory artwork and community forestry initiative planting over 40,000 trees for Black lives across all 50 states and producing a series of short films documenting his efforts.
His work and practice have been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Cultured, The Art Newspaper, Frieze, The Architect’s Newspaper, and Boston Globe.
Education
MA in Interaction Design
Domus Academy, Milan, IT
2009
BS in Information Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
2006
Solo Exhibition and Performances (Selected)
Deconstructed Anthems: Massachusetts (Exhibition/Performance feat. James Francies, Jeremy
Dutton, Will Mabuza, and Angel Bat Dawid)
Boston Center for the Arts
2024
Breathing Pavilion (Public Exhibition/Performance feat. Kalia Vandever, Melanie Charles, Joel
Ross, Baba Don Babatunde, Neil Clarke, Lakecia Benjamin, Mr. Fitz, and Keyon
Harrold)
Van Alen Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2021
A Counting: St Louis (Online Exhibition)
CAM Anywhere, Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis
2021
Deconstructed Anthems: Nebraska (Public Performance feat Dr. Kristín Taylor and Dr. Bryan
Stanley)
Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE
2021
A Counting: Houston (Online Exhibition)
Beyond CAMH, Contemporary Art Museum of Houston
2020
Energy Poles: Heart (Heartfelt) (Public Exhibition),
The Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
2019
Deconstructed Anthems: Illinois (Exhibition/Performance feat. Alexis Lombre)
The Arts Club of Chicago
2019
Deconstructed Anthems: Washington D.C. (Performance feat. Amy K. Bormet, Victor Haskins,
and Andrew Randazzo)
Arts Summit, The Kennedy Center
2018
Deconstructed Anthems (Installation/Performance feat. Kris Bowers, Ambrose Akinmusire, and
Burniss Earl Travis)
Day for Night Festival, Houston, TX
2017
Group Exhibitions (Selected)
Inviting Light (Public Exhibition)
Station North Arts District, Baltimore, MD
2026
The Exchange (Public Exhibition)
Boston Art Triennial
2025
Objects of Exchange
Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven, NL
2025
PST ART: Art and Science Collide
Blended Worlds, Brand Library and Art Center, Glendale, CA
2024
Plásmata: Bodies, Dreams, and Data (Public Exhibition)
Pedion tou Areos, Athens, GR
2022
All Together, Amongst Many
Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE
2021
Imagining Data
Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA
2021
Citizenship
Museum of Contemporary Art Denver
2020
Landed
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
2016
New Americas
Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, CA
2016
Design and Violence
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2015
Designs of the Year
Design Museum, London, UK
2015
Istanbul Design Biennial
Istanbul, TR
2015
Measure
Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, NY
2015
Fellowships, Awards, Residencies (Selected)
Berg Global Artist-in-Residency Fellowship
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
2026
Independent Project Grant
Architecture League of New York
2025
Creative Change Community Fund
The Opportunity Agenda, New York, NY
2025
Creative Grant
Community Engagement, Newport Beach, CA
2025
Curious 100
Eames Institute, San Francisco, CA
2025
Artist-in-Residency
Nirox Sculpture Park, Krugersdorp, SA
2023
Fay Chandler Creativity Grant
MIT Center for Art, Science, and Technology
2023
NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship (Architecture, Environmental Structures, and Design)
New York Foundation for the Arts
2022
Individual Artist Grant (Film, Media, and New Technology)
New York State Council on the Arts
2021
Grant
MAP Fund, New York, NY
2019
Award (Installation and Multimedia)
Creative Capital, New York, NY
2019
Media Arts Assistance Fund Individual Artist Grant
Wave Farm, New York, NY
2018
Visiting Artist
MIT Media Lab, MIT
2018
Citizen Artist Fellowship
The Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
2017
Vibrant Cities Designer-in-Residency
California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2017
NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship (Architecture, Environmental Structures, and Design)
New York Foundation for the Arts
2016
IdeasCity Detroit Fellowship
New Museum, Detroit, MI
2016
Creative 100, Adweek
New York, NY
2016
GOOD 100, GOOD Magazine
Los Angeles, CA
2016