Johnson Ocheja is a self-taught Nigerian painter whose distinct style is characterised within the emergent tradition of black figuration. Depicting his black figures with blue pigment, his works problematise the category of 'blackness' by altering the skin colour of his sitters, emphasising the diversity of ethinicity, racial composition and identities which together constitute the black community. His signature impasto technique, which textures the skin of his figures, references the rural scarification traditions which are common in socieities across Africa, including in Nigeria. In that sense, works like the present lot take a global discourse on conceptions of blackness and locate them within the artist's local Nigerian context, combining cultural symbolism with a contemporary exploration of identity and belonging.