Zurich – Lord of the Flies: The Plot Thickens: Ekene Emeka-Maduka

We are delighted to announce Fabienne Levy Gallery's first participation in the Zurich Art Weekend, presenting a new body of work by Nigerian artist Ekene Emeka-Maduka.

Conceived as a cohesive narrative arc, this new body of work by Ekene Emeka-Maduka (Nigeria, b. 1996) unfolds within the fictional architecture of a Nigerian boarding school, a system she once inhabited, rendered here as a condensed model of society. 

Drawing on adolescence as a formative and globally legible stage, the artist constructs a narrative that resists autobiography: rather than an illustration of lived experience, the exhibition presents a multitemporal memory palace shaped by unreliable recollection and shared imaginaries. References to Lord of the Flies and Things Fall Apart surface as dissonant literary inheritances, refracted through the lens of a postcolonial education. 

Across a series of paintings and works on paper, developed in part during a residency in Switzerland, Ekene traces how structures of authority and invention take shape within enclosed environments. Between discipline and improvisation, control and play, the works open a space to reflect on how identities are rehearsed, negotiated, and collectively imagined.

Find out our events during the Zurich art Weekend in the events section!