With a background in sociology from Delta State University and master’s in international relations from the University of Portsmouth, Maureen Uzoh is a pop surrealist who explores the delicate balance between resilience, fragility and freedom. Through her art, she strives to connect with universal human experiences, encouraging conversations around freedom, mental health, identity and the ephemeral beauties of life.
A self-taught artist, she has honed her craft through years of informal learning and experimentation, developing a distinctive visual language rooted in surrealism and psychological depth. Her work draws from the vibrant, playful world of pop surrealism while engaging with introspective themes.
Her work has been exhibited internationally in galleries such as African Artists Foundation (Nigeria), Calabar Gallery (New York), Broadworks x Hive (London, UK), including a group exhibition with Nosakhari for the London Fashion Week. She currently lives and works in London, United Kingdom, continuing to expand her practice through painting, installations, and public art projects.
Maureen approaches her art with a deep understanding of human emotions and societal dynamics, which is characteristic of artists such as Salvador Dalí and René Magritte, who had a huge impact on 20th-century art, influencing not just painting but literature, film, and psychology too.
Like what these artists did and the movement that emerged subsequently, Maureen pushes her viewers to question what’s real and what’s imagined, challenging reality and rational thought, often combining unexpected elements in bizarre and thought-provoking ways.
Best known for painting human figures with balloon heads, a surreal yet deeply symbolic element which serves as a metaphor for life’s unpredictability, she interrogates the mind’s complexities and quest for personal liberation. The balloon head, to her, is light and delicate, and it can drift away or burst at any moment. The swing and balloon also help her to reflect childlike innocence — a mix of playfulness and danger, which is a classic surrealist vibe — making everyday things feel bizarre and thought-provoking.
In surrealism, a swing often suggests movement between states, like being stuck between reality and dreams. Since a swing goes back and forth, it can mean uncertainty—you’re not settled, always in motion. Childhood nostalgia meets something strange: freedom that feels limited by invisible rules and the subconscious—like thoughts swinging between logic and madness. It’s a simple object, but surrealists use it to make you feel that nothing is fixed.
The string tied to it shows someone or something trying to hold onto it, but the grip is precarious and uncertain. This image symbolises an identity that’s floating — like a person feeling untethered from reality or themselves. The string is an attempt to keep things grounded, but the balloon can still slip away.
In My Inner Child Says: Live Life Before It Leaves You, a deeply personal and introspective debut solo show, Maureen explores freedom, mortality, and second chances with balloon head and strings suggesting fragility, loss of control, and vulnerability. She uses balloon-headed figures as a recurring motif, as she stresses the playful yet fragile symbols of humanity and hope.
Inspired by her near-death experience as a teenager, she now views life and time through vibrant, surrealist compositions. She wants to encourage viewers to reconnect with their sense of wonder and live with childlike openness despite life’s uncertainty.
In I Found A New Place Called Solitude, she interrogates the moment, embracing the fear of being alone; however, she discovers strength, peace and self-awareness in that solitude. The theme tells a story of loneliness and how uncertain life could be.
In I Found a New Place Called Solitude 1 (acrylic, photo transfer, oil paint and embroidery on canvas, 81 x 102 cm, 2024), Maureen reflects on the weightlessness of stepping into the unknown. Three major objects shape the memory: Home, headphone and bee. The headphones symbolise tuning out the voices of doubt and external expectations. The house in the background, now just a sketch with embroidery, represents the place she left behind, once solid, now her past. While the Ankara-patterned pants hint at her cultural heritage, the cross necklace reflects her spirituality, especially as a Nigerian. She wears her religion like cross and goes everywhere with Christ, the saviour. And then there’s the bee, a small yet important reminder that life keeps moving, that even in solitude, there is connection, growth, and purpose.
In surrealism, a bee could be a symbol that’s both familiar and strange — like showing up in a weird, dreamy context to mess with your head. It could represent something sweet turning sour, or something tiny having big power — like hidden fears or desires buzzing around.
Maureen uses two bold colours, yellow and orange. The bold colours are often used to heighten emotion and symbolism, making identity both vivid and unstable. The yellow suggests value, divinity, and something unattainable. When a figure is painted with yellow elements, it can feel like an idealised version of self—a mask or a false identity that shines but also isolates. Orange is energetic, disruptive, and attention-grabbing. It can represent inner conflict or passion that’s hard to contain, pulling the identity into a chaotic space. Surrealists love that tension — bright, clashing colours make the viewer doubt what they’re seeing and start interrogating their own sense of self.
Using just two colours to shape identity is super intentional — it’s like the artist saying identity can be simple or complex. These colours create contrast, duality, and tension, which mirrors two sides of an individual: They make it easy to see the split — like a mask vs the real you, or public vs private identity. It’s bold, visual, and instantly grabs attention, which is why surrealists love it for questioning reality and self.
She also returns to the theme in I Found a New Place Called Solitude 3 (acrylic, oil paint and embroidery on canvas, size: 39 x 79 cm, 2024).
In As I begin this journey (acrylic, oil paint and photo transfer on canvas, 39 x 79 cm, 2025), she experiments with five colours. The colours are manageable and vibrant. The purple carries a lot of the weight, as it amplifies the dreamlike surrealism it is noted. Purple adds depth and intrigue to the subconscious themes explored in the art.
At first, solitude felt unfamiliar, almost unsettling. The individual was often taught that being alone is something to fear, something to avoid. “But as time passed, I began to see it differently. Solitude wasn’t emptiness; it was space. It was freedom. It was a luxury I had never allowed myself to experience. This painting captures that transition,” Maureen revealed.
In Party of 3 (Size: 81 x 102 cm), a work she did in 2024, whose medium is acrylic, oil paint and embroidery on canvas. She uses three colours to capture the mood. The blue dress —cool, chic, kinda mysterious. So, when you throw a jeans gown on top, that’s straight-up surreal fashion flex. Like, you’re mixing classic and edgy, the image gives what could be called a major high-fashion street energy.
