I am a queer Nigerian-Swedish American filmmaker and visual artist whose work showcases traditional African cosmologies and innovative lighting techniques and depict Blackness as a divine, cosmic principle of the universe that transcends all life.
Mikael Owunna is a Nigerian-Swedish American filmmaker, multimedia artist, engineer, Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy Nominee, and Co-Founder of Rainbow Serpent, a Black LGBTQ art | tech | spirituality organization. Exploring the intersections of technology, art, and African cosmologies, his work seeks to elucidate an emancipatory vision of possibility that revives traditional African knowledge systems and pushes people beyond all boundaries, restrictions, and frontiers. Owunna’s work has been exhibited across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America and has been collected and showcased by institutions such as Tate Modern; Fotografiska Stockholm; Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History & Culture; Art Dubai; Digital Art Fair Asia; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. His work has also been featured in media ranging from the New York Times to CNN, NPR, VICE, and The Guardian. He has lectured at venues including Harvard Law School, World Press Photo (Netherlands), and TEDx. Owunna has published two monographs: “Limitless Africans” (FotoEvidence, 2019) and “Cosmologies” (ClampArt, 2021), and his work has been commissioned for major public art installations by organizations including the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Foundation, Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh, Pittsburgh International Airport, and Orange Barrel Media.
College
Duke University
Biomedical Engineering and History
20082012
College
Middlebury College Language Schools
French
20172018
High School
Western Reserve Academy
20042008
Birth Date
August 2, 1990
Birth City
Pittsburgh, PA
Current City
Pittsburgh, PA
Hometown
Pittsburgh, PA
Height
6' 2"
Gender
Male
Ethnicity
Black
Eye Color
Brown
Zodiac Sign
Cancer
Lived in Taiwan for 1 year as a Fulbright Scholar.
Studied British History for a summer at Oxford University.
Double Majored in Biomedical Engineering and History at Duke University.
Family descends from a line of dibias in Igboland.
"The Earth is looked at, from my tribal perspective, as a very, very delicate machine or consciousness, with high vibrational points, which certain people must be guardians of in order for the tribe to keep its continuity with the gods and with the spirits that dwell there. Spirits of this world and spirits of the other worlds. Any person who is at this link between this world and the other world experiences a state of vibrational consciousness which is far higher, and far different, from the one that a normal person would experience. This is what makes a gay person gay. This kind of function is not one that society votes for certain people to fulfill. It is one that people are said to decide on prior to being born. You decide that you will be a gatekeeper before you are born. And it is that decision that provides you with the equipment (Malidoma gestures by circling waist area with hands) that you bring into this world. So when you arrive here you begin to vibrate in a way that Elders can detect as meaning that you are connected with a gateway somewhere. Then they watch you grow, and they watch you act and react, and sooner or later they will follow you to the gateway that you are connected with."
- Malidoma Somé
I am a queer Nigerian-Swedish American filmmaker and visual artist whose work showcases traditional African cosmologies and innovative lighting techniques and depict Blackness as a divine, cosmic principle of the universe that transcends all life.
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