Onajevwe makes for a future unknown to her, leaving behind prior versions of herself as traces to be discovered. The number four is central to her identity and sense of structure. Her mother raised four children, and this configuration has shaped how Onajevwe understands balance, survival, and continuity. Four becomes a framework rather than a symbol, a way of thinking through grounding, protection, and repetition across her life and work.

She is drawn to wood as a materiality, fascinated by the tension between natural origin and commercial commodity, and by its associations with domestic life and the familial. Into wooden surfaces, she traps images with resin, capturing moments of Black being she deems vital. Her ancestors guide this process. They are the pulse between her eyes, the shimmer as glitter settles onto the work. She feels their presence in her chest, like a burning, bright star.

Onajevwe has described herself as a spirit child, someone attuned to realities beyond the visible. This orientation shapes how she moves through making.

She is enthralled by the process of art-making: the not knowing followed by the becoming. A tightening in the throat gives way to release. The act is euphoric.

As a Black artist, her work is often read as political, though it is not born from that impulse. Through her practice, Onajevwe resists the idea of whiteness as neutrality and insists on the Black gaze as neutral, as it exists for her.

She holds a BFA from Cornell University. Her work has been shown in Surrey and London in the UK, and in Ithaca, New York. She is grateful to have received the Edith Stone and Walter King Memorial Prize, the John and Melissa Ceriale Award, and the Mellon Social Impact Award.