FLORIAN OKWU

Based in Vancouver, BC

Florian Okwu is an American-born sculptor with Nigerian and German heritage. His career as a sculptor began after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2024, where he was first inspired to carve the forms which now populate and mythologize his imaginary world. Florian’s anthropomorphic work primarily references life cycles, embodiment, and animism, asking viewers to consider objects as individuals. He defines his artistic practice as an object-creator relationship built on form-making: An uncovering of his own human nature through the physicalization of his subconscious.

I often ground myself in recognition of all the mental landscapes we share with those who’ve come before, identically afflicted in their compulsions, obsessions, and instincts. There remains an undeniable kernel hidden inside the mind of every person, a particular humanity which I explore in my work, born from a search for meaning.

Whether apotropaic figure, children's toy, or ornate tool, sculptors throughout history have coalesced around this kernel, physicalizing their thoughts through the translation of personal and shared inner landscapes into objective proofs of their immaterial desires. Like them, It's through these testaments to the relationship between the cognitive and physical worlds that I add depth to my life, hedging my own mortality with recordings of my beliefs, interests, and observations.

Not only does sculpture offer me evidence of my life, but it deepens my relationship with our species as well: allowing me to join hands with people from millennia past, and discover a personal language born from my genetic history and past experiences. I use my work autobiographically, recording a developing relationship with my self, my instincts, and my drives, effectively turning each sculpture into a personal wilderness through which I discover both my own humanity, as well as the creation of a culture that is wholly my own.

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Please contact: studio@okflo.com