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Chelsea Odufu is a first-generation Nigerian and Guyanese American Filmmaker and multi-disciplinary artist working across narrative, experimental film, video art, installation, and photography. Odufu is deeply concerned with how traditional aspects of Black culture are preserved in the face of urbanization and globalization. Her work is influenced by the hybridity of her ethnic identity speaking to American, African, and Caribbean histories and aesthetics. Her work also examines how culture, religion, and geographic location influence how different ethnic identities are formed and evolve. Chelsea’s work incorporates the mystic, allowing time to collapse in her work where the future, past and present coincide in her pieces. Chelsea’s work juxtaposes afro-futuristic imagery, archival footage, and poetic approaches to demystify the stigmas typically connected to BIPOC identities. Her work is visually striking, emotional, and thought-provoking, yet, it is clear her process comes to her very intuitively.

 

Chelsea received her BFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts. Upon graduation from Tisch, Chelsea worked with Spike Lee on several projects such as Chi-Raq, and She’s Gotta Have It. Chelsea has created two award-winning films, Ori Inu: In Search of Self (2016) and Black Lady Goddess (2020), which were official selections in over 20 film festivals worldwide. Chelsea Odufu was among twelve artists selected 2021 for Kehinde Wiley’s Black Rock Senegal Residency in Dakar. She has exhibited her work at the Dakar Biennially, Alabama Contemporary Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporic Art, and then I A&A Hillyer Gallery in DC. Her work has been featured in the New York Times and Huffington Post, to name a few. Chelsea has directed content for brands such as Chanel, Dr. Martens, Target, Cadillac, Fiverr, and Hologic.