I had the pleasure of working with ONCA Gallery in July 2019 for my first solo exhibition ‘Now You See Me: Undoing Stereotypes About Women of Colour’.

This was the first time I had the opportunity to work with a gallery, and was so pleased with the level of involvement, dedication and kindness everyone at ONCA extended to me to plan and execute the exhibition.

The ONCA staff went above and beyond in brainstorming ideas with me for the exhibition, from where to place the pieces to including more interactive elements in the exhibition in order to get visitors to participate and interact with the exhibition in different ways. I believe that the interactive elements to the exhibition in particular generated a lot of interest around my work and lead to some fantastic testimonials from visitors about the impact the exhibition had on their perception of race, gender and art.

Working with ONCA also gave me the exposure I needed to go on to partner with organisations and institutions such as the Tate, BBC and Gal-Dem. As a new, emerging artist, the kind of support ONCA gave me to run my first solo exhibition was exactly what I needed to provide credibility when networking and looking for new art/illustration opportunities.

I also feel that working with ONCA inspired me to find the determination and courage to pursue art/illustration as a career and apply to the esteemed Pathways Programme into Children’s Publishing. I am now a mentee on the programme and am working with publishing houses and illustrators to create illustrations for Children’s Books.

Thank you ONCA for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to showcase my work!

Follow Ananya’s Story

Website | Facebook | Instagram