Image: Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art will present 'David Uzochukwu: Bodies of Water' from June 10 through September 2026. The exhibition is described by the museum as a poetic meditation on identity, migration and belonging, and it marks the artist’s first solo museum exhibition.
The show centers on Uzochukwu’s photographic practice, which the museum says draws on mythology, fantasy, and personal and collective histories. In the exhibition, he presents hybrid beings—part human, part animal—set within surreal, dreamlike landscapes. According to the museum’s text, these figures are adorned with fins, scales and other features that equip them to thrive in challenging waters.
The museum frames the work as an image-based reflection on adaptability and resilience in diasporic communities navigating environments often marked by hostility and exclusion. It also places Blackness at the center of the exhibition’s visual and conceptual concerns, stating that within these imagined worlds, Blackness resists simple definition and appears as fluid, shifting and vibrantly alive.
The exhibition is on view at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis. The institution’s website notes that the museum is currently moving downtown, but the exhibition listing itself identifies the venue for 'David Uzochukwu: Bodies of Water' as the Brooks. The show is part of the museum’s upcoming exhibitions program.
The museum’s online materials also provide a brief artist context. David Uzochukwu is identified as a Berlin-based artist, photographer and filmmaker whose work explores identity, cultural memory and history. His images have appeared in publications including the British Journal of Photography, i-D and Dazed, and have been exhibited at institutions such as Saatchi Gallery in London, Fotografiska in New York and Shanghai, and Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City.
The Brooks notes that Uzochukwu’s photographs are held in public collections including Collection Pictet in Switzerland, Musée de la Photographie de Saint-Louis in Senegal, and The Wedge Collection in Canada. It also describes him as a 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and says he has directed films including 'Götterdämmerung' (2020) and 'Civil Dusk' (2021), as well as episodes of 'Black Fruit', which premiered in 2024 at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Curatorial credit goes to Efe Igor Coleman, identified by the museum as an independent curator and scholar specializing in African diasporic art. The museum also lists major support from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from Molly and Jason Wexler, Dr. Linda Tharp, the Black Art Collective and the Pride Collective. The exhibition catalogue is supported by Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.
