The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre
The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre is closed.
Victor Ehikhamenor: Undoing the City, Making Home is a meditation on resistance, resilience, and cultural continuity when marginalized communities confront extraction, displacement, and gentrification. A partnership between the Chau Chak Wing Museum and Blacktown Arts, the project centres on acclaimed Nigerian-American artist Victor Ehikhamenor, whose practice examines colonialism, globalisation, spirituality, and cultural identity.
It emerges from collaborative research by Associate Professor Lucia Sorbera, University of Sydney, and Professor Mark LeVine, University of California, Irvine, exploring creative responses to forced urban change in the Okrika Waterfront of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, with fieldwork also conducted in Egypt, Kenya, and Australia.
Presented across multiple sites, Ehikhamenor’s work and public programs connect communities across continents, revealing shared histories of dispossession, survival, and creative resistance, positioning the artist as archivist for stories that would otherwise be forgotten. At the Chau Chak Wing Museum, new and recent works draw together stories, symbols, and artistic responses that sustain cultural identity and collective memory.
Through Blacktown Arts and cultural consultant Fungai Mutsiwa on behalf of AfriKaleidoscope, Ehikhamenor has collaborated with community partners, artists, and cultural organisations to foster dialogue, participation, and mentorship, extending the project beyond the museum. Together, these initiatives highlight art’s power to challenge erasure, strengthen community connections, and imagine more equitable urban futures. See more information about this here
Bio: Artist
Victor Ehikhamenor is a Nigerian multidisciplinary artist and writer whose practice explores African cultural heritage, postcolonial politics, and contemporary Nigeria. Rooted in the visual and ritual traditions of the Benin Kingdom, his work spans painting, sculpture, installation, and handmade paper. A 2026 Apollo 40 Patrons and Advocates awardee, he has exhibited internationally and represented Nigeria at the 57th Venice Biennale.
You can find Victor on Instagram here
Bios: Professional development cohort
- Attu Ngor
- Bruce Koussaba
- Emmanuel Asante
- Fabian Odame
- Cultural Consultant: Fungai Mutsiwa on behalf of AfriKaleidoscope
- Paul Matereke
- Steph Martei
Attu Ngor is an emerging DJ and radio host in the Eora music scene that redefines the boundaries of sound by weaving together Afro and tribal rhythms, vogue, drum and bass, hip hop, electronica and techno. She crafts together a powerful sound that reflects her boundless exploration of music.
For Attu, music is a universal language without any limits, a means of connection that transcends genres.
You can find Attu on Instagram here
Bruce Koussaba is a filmmaker and writer based in Sydney on unceded Gadigal and Wangal Lands of the Eora Nation. His involvement in cinema extends into criticism, festival work, programming, introductions, and writing-directing.
He is currently an organiser for the grassroots community film program Liberation Cinema and an editor for the independent online film magazine Nosebleed.
You can find Bruce on Instagram here
Emmanuel Asante is a young western Sydney artist from Ghana in West Africa, arriving in Australia in 2015. Emmanuel is highly influence by his culture, Frida Kahlo and his artist-mentor Abdul Abdullah. Self-taught, Emmanuel commenced painting and drawing to deal with depression and personal experiences.
He is a recent recipient of the 2019 Youth Achievement Award in Creative Arts, and was featured in the story ‘Behind every number is a student’, published in the The Age newspaper.
You can find Emmanuel on Instagram here
FRIDAY* is a popstar born and bred in Sydney’s West, on a mission to broadcast his sounds to the world. His work blends R&B, alternative, dance and electronica into a product that can only be described as Afro-Futurist in nature.
His most recent project rituals, 2026, is the culmination of a journey started with his debut EP Darling, 2023, a journey filled with standout live concert moments including Laneway Sydney & Vivid LIVE, support for artists such as Paris Texas and 1300, and embraces from both community (FBi, 2ser) as well as national (Triple J, CADA) radio.
You can find Fabian on Instagram here
Fungai Mutsiwa is the Founder and Creative Director of AfriKaleidoscope, an independent curatorial and cultural production platform focused on African and diasporic artistic expression, based in Sydney. Originally from Zimbabwe, he approaches his curatorial work from an African-centred perspective, treating African knowledge systems as primary frameworks rather than material filtered through dominant Western lenses.
He has delivered prior Sydney productions including The.Harlem.Project at 107 Projects, Redfern in 2023, Eternal Echoes: Rediscovering Ancient African Worlds at Flow Studios, 2024, and culdesac, culdesac, culdesac at Parramatta Town Hall, 2025. He is a 2026 Board Observer at Performing Lines.
You can find AfriKaleidoscope on Instagram here
Paul Pinga Matereke, born 1994, Zimbabwe, is a contemporary photographer and filmmaker based in Sydney. He chronicles the nuances of daily life by photographing the city streets in search of poetic imagery hidden in plain sight.
Paul’s commitment to his craft also extends to the meticulous process of developing black and white negatives and producing darkroom prints. His film work has been commissioned by Runway Journal, Antenna Documentary Film Festival, Flickerfest Film Festival and exhibited at Alpha House Gallery.
You can find Paul on Instagram here
Steph Martei is a western Sydney-based multidisciplinary visual artist whose practice centres on vibrant portraiture and visual storytelling. Working across traditional and digital mediums, her work explores identity, representation, culture and empowerment, celebrating people and communities often overlooked in mainstream narratives.
Inspired by graphic novels, animation and her own experiences of representation, Steph uses art to create space for people to be seen, celebrated and unapologetically themselves.
You can find Steph on Instagram here
Victor Ehikhamenor: Undoing the City, Making Home is co-produced by the Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney, and Blacktown Arts and Blacktown City Council.
This project has been supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW, and the Vere Gordon Childe Centre, The University of Sydney, as well as the Collaborative Media Advocacy Platform and Chicoco Media, who provided essential background research.
