FLORIAN OKWU

Based in Vancouver, BC

Florian Okwu is a Nigerian and German-American artist bridging subconscious and physical reality through abstract wooden sculptures. He carves beings, creatures and structures which populate and mythologize his own internal landscapes and imaginary world.

Florian's anthropomorphic work references life-cycles and embodiment, mirroring the viewer and asking them to consider their own history, mortality, and purpose. He defines his artistic practice as one of aesthetic inquiry, an uncovering of what makes him human, and a physical mapping of his time, inspirations, and creative journey.

Across every culture from every era, people have dedicated themselves to physically proofing their humanity through objects, either for immediate use in their personal lives, or by way of eternalizing their culture in the record of time. Given how the industrial and digital-ages have re-shaped our lives, it brings comfort to recognize the entire mental and conscious landscape we still share with our ancestors, identically afflicted in our compulsions, obsessions, and instincts. Whether dressed in deerskin or a tailored suit, there remains an undeniable kernel inside the mind which cannot be overwritten, one which I explore in my work: A fundamentally creative human condition.

From votive idol to children's toy, the intentions of artists from times past coalesce around this kernel which implores and demands the physicalization of thought. It's through these testaments to physicality that we give depth to our lives and those around us, immortalizing experiences and beliefs within them.

Mortality plays a large role in my work for this reason, acting as a primary agent to this search for purpose and meaning, asking us to consider the fact of the matter of life itself and how it will be spent:

I have found this answer in sculpture, a practice which offers proof to my life, evidence of my curiousities, ambitions and interests which would otherwise, even in the span of my own life, fade to distant memories and forgotten selves. Carving allows me to join hands with humans who lived under completely different circumstances yet came to the same answer, and provides me with a raison d'etre which records my developing relationship with timelessness and inventive human-nature in the 21st century. Each of my sculptures acts as a mirror, presenting a personal wilderness in which I discover my own humanity and the creation of a culture that is wholly my own.

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For general interests, please contact: studio@okflo.com