Okhiogbe · Benin City, Nigeria · 1985
Interdisciplinary Creative Producer
Archivist · Curator · Festival Producer
Filmmaker · Oral Historian
"Be like water — take on the shape needed to actualise the work."
A debut collection that moves with the quiet force of water — intimate poems, essays, and photographs drawn from the lived experience of growing up, belonging, and becoming. Rooted in the memories of Benin City and the Edo people, and stretching across the African diaspora, Kids from the River is both an act of personal testimony and an act of collective reclamation.
True to OmonBlanks' practice, the book refuses to separate the personal from the political, the poetic from the documentary. The body remembers. The river carries. Everything we do takes on a life of its own.
Born in Benin City, Nigeria, Okhiogbe "OmonBlanks" Omonhinmin carries his manifesto in his name: Okhiogbe — war won't kill me. Omonhinmin — this child will save me. He finds calmness in chaos.
As an interdisciplinary creative producer — or what artist J Morgan Puett calls an "ambassador of entanglement" — his practice flows across documentation, archiving, festival curating, film, music, installation art, and oral history. His work always has an element of social engagement: food, conversation, shared space as primary artistic materials.
He holds the University of the Arts Berlin Artist Research Fellowship (2021–2023) and lives between Accra · London · Berlin, frequently returning to Lagos and Benin City.
A selection of interdisciplinary projects across documentation, music, curation and exhibition
TAC (The Art Concept) is a documentation and archive-focused platform studying African and Black societies from individual, community, city, country and continent perspectives. Through oral storytelling and biographical conversations, TAC collects the cultural memory of Africa and its diaspora.
The long-term goal is to build audio-visual libraries around the African continent — enabling people everywhere to access these collected documents. Because only when we take back the power to determine our centre can we truly tell our own narratives.
Explore the ArchiveOn Practice
"Practitioners, especially those with Black and African heritage, should be given the same room and regard as their academic colleagues — because only through practice do we get to test theories."
— Okhiogbe OmonBlanks Omonhinmin
Available for collaborations,
commissions, residencies & conversations