Hope Ngozi Okere is a Nigerian American interdisciplinary artist, based in Los Angeles, CA. Her work exists at the intersection of sculpture, fiber, and movement. Informing her art praxis are theories of Afro-Futurism, neo-conceptualism, and African and modern dance. She also explores dualities, distortions, translations, and hybridity. She holds an MFA from the University of California Santa Barbara and a BFA from Parsons School of Design in NYC. Hope has attended residencies and workshops at Haystack School of Craft, Yucca Valley Material lab, The Textile Art Center, Pioneer Works, Texere in Oaxaca, ME.

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Education

University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, MFA 2024

Parsons the New School for Design, New York, NY, BFA Fashion Design, 2007

Iowa State University, Ames, IA, Double Major Apparel Design and Fine Art, 2002-2004

Selected Exhibitions

8/2025             HOMEOSTASIS, Keystone Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (4 person)

6/25-8/25         FREE and ABSTRACT, DMST Atelier, Los Angeles, CA (juried group)

5/2025             Keystone Artists Exhibition, Keystone Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (group)

3/2025             Casa Abierta, Texere, Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca, MX (group)

9/24-10/24       Social Sediment, New Wight Gallery: UCLA Broad Art Center. LA, CA (juried group)

8/2024             Nomad III, Torrance Art Museum at Del Amo Crossing, Torrance, CA (juried group)

6/24-7/24         The New Salon Arte del Pueblo, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, CA (group)

6/1/2024          movement:::WATER / movement:::SUPPORT, Red Barn Gallery, UCSB (solo)

5/24-6/24         Incandescent, 2024 MFA Thesis Exhibition, AD&A Museum, UC Santa Barbara (group)

3/24 – 4/24      Small Images 2024, Atkinson Gallery, SBCC, Santa Barbara, CA (juried group)

2/2024             Weaving Three Rivers, Glass Box Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA (3 person)

6/2023             Tributaries, Art, Design & Architecture Museum, Santa Barbara, CA (group)

4/2023             Brief and Spectacular, live performance, SCRANCH, Joshua Tree, CA (group)

3/2023             Transmigration, Live dance solo performance and video installation, UCSB Dept of

                        Theater and Dance, SB, CA (solo)

1/23-2/23         Accountability, Responsibility, and Sustainability, GLAMFA 2023 Exhibition

                        Cal State University Long Beach School of Art Galleries, Long Beach, CA (juried)

1/23 – 2/23      Kind of Mother, Arts Fund Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA (invitational)

11/2022           Ancestor Dance, Atrium, UCSB, Santa Barbara CA (solo)

3/2022             Embody, Solo Exhibition at Glass Box Gallery, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA (solo)

1/22 - 3/22       The Black Art Seen, Arts Fund x Melanin Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA (juried/invitational)

12/2021           Slower processes, Glass Box Gallery, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA (invitational)

9/2021             RESET, Glass Box Gallery, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA (group)

Workshops and Residencies

3/2025            Texere, Textile Residency, Oaxaca, CA

7/2023             Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Fiber: Sculptural Basketry, Deer Isle Maine

5/2023             Yucca Valley Material Lab, Glass Casting, Joshua Tree, CA

8/2017             Pioneer Works, Indigo Dye with Bassen Technique, NY, NY

4/2017             Textile Art Center, Indigo Dying, NY, NY

7/2015             Textile Art Center, Weaving 101, NY, NY

Collaborations

5/6/2023          Performer and collaborator in Shana Moulton’s Live Video performance art piece at Art in Nature at Taft Gardens an exhibition and fundraiser event in Ojai, CA

Art Collectives

Figure 8, BIPOC Fem Coalition, Founder 2023

 Imaginaries of the future, member since 2022.  A self-organizing nomadic collective of artists and thinkers founded by Beatriz Cortez

Collections

Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ

 Awards / Grants / Honors

2024     Dedalus MFA fellowship nominee

2023     Ron Newby Outstanding Artist Award $3,000

2023     IPS, Individualized Professional Skills Grant, $1000 UCSB

2021     Israel Levitan fellowship award

2004     Fashion Show Fund Scholarship, Parsons School of Design

2002     George Washington Carver Scholar, Iowa State University

Artist Talks, Lectures, and Panels

5/18/24            ‘Forging Collectivity: Belonging, Collaboration and its Disconnects’ Artist research paper presentation at the 2024 GCLR Graduate Student Conference, Wallis Annenberg Conference Room, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA

2024-2025       Review Panelist for CCS Mid Residency Exhibitions

11/7/2023        ‘Fashion to Fine Art’, Artist Talk, Art 10 Introductory Painting Class, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA

9/8/2023          Panelist at Footnotes, ‘Textiles and multidisciplinary practices’ with Sayali Goyal of Cocoa and Jasmine, Oakland, CA

7/25/2023        Artist Talk at Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Deer Isle, Maine