Moses Zibor

Moses Zibor: African Surrealism, Dreams and the Symbolic Waters of Transformation

Moses Zibor is a Nigerian-Ghanaian contemporary artist born in 1978 in Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria. Living and working in Almaty, Kazakhstan, he creates figurative oil paintings shaped by dreams, memory, water, flowers, animals and spiritual symbolism. His work belongs to a personal form of African Surrealism, where autobiographical experience becomes a visual language of rebirth, resilience and inner freedom.

His practice occupies a distinctive place within contemporary African art, bringing together Nigerian memory, Ghanaian heritage, life in Kazakhstan and a deeply imaginative approach to storytelling. Zibor’s paintings often unfold in dreamlike spaces where figures, fish, birds, butterflies, flowers, lamps and water spirits appear as guides, guardians and symbols of transformation.

View available works by Moses Zibor ›

Dreams as a Source of Painting

Moses Zibor’s paintings often begin with dreams, visions and drawings recorded in his sketchbooks. Rather than treating dreams as escape, he uses them as a structure for reflection. They allow him to transform personal memory, uncertainty, hope and spiritual belief into carefully staged images.

This dream-based approach gives his work its distinctive atmosphere. Figures appear surrounded by flowers, fish, butterflies, birds, folded paper boats, keys, lamps or symbolic animals. Each element suggests a passage, a warning, a wish or a form of guidance. The painting becomes a space where the inner life can speak through images.

Water, Rebirth and the Journey Forward

Water is one of the recurring symbols in Zibor’s work. It appears as a place of trial, renewal and transformation. Figures may rise from it, move through it or be surrounded by aquatic life. Fish often suggest new encounters, companionship or possibility, while lamps, keys and open spaces point toward guidance and future movement.

This symbolism is closely connected to the artist’s own journey. Born in Lagos and later based in Kazakhstan, Zibor has lived through multiple forms of displacement, adaptation and reinvention. His paintings turn this experience into a visual mythology of survival, where the self is continually tested, transformed and reborn.

Flowers, Figures and the Poetics of Protection

Many of Zibor’s portraits are crowned, surrounded or partly veiled by flowers. These floral forms are not merely decorative. They can suggest protection, beauty, fragility, growth and spiritual presence. In some works, the figure seems to emerge from the flower; in others, the flower becomes a shield or sign of inner radiance.

The faces in his paintings are often still, direct and contemplative. They carry the quiet intensity of people who are both present and elsewhere, grounded in the world yet connected to symbolic realms. This tension between portrait and dream gives Zibor’s work its emotional force.

From Lagos to Almaty: A Personal African Surrealism

Moses Zibor graduated from Yaba College of Technology in Lagos in 2008 and later studied at Almaty Art School in Kazakhstan in 2017. After years of creative work across different fields, he returned to painting with renewed intensity around 2020, developing a more introspective and symbolic language.

His adopted home in Kazakhstan has influenced his palette, textiles and sense of atmosphere, while his artistic imagination remains rooted in African memory, spiritual symbolism and personal experience. The result is a form of African Surrealism that is intimate rather than theatrical: a world of signs through which the artist speaks about hope, fear, friendship, transformation and freedom.

Selected Exhibitions, Art Fairs and Collections

Moses Zibor’s solo exhibitions include African Surrealism at OOA Gallery; solo exhibitions at Ular Gallery and in Almaty, Kazakhstan; and Timeless Energy at Nike Art Center. His work has also been presented in You Are Not Alone at Almaty Museum of Arts, Kazakhstan.

His group exhibitions and art fair presentations include Ecce Uomo: Masculinity in Contemporary African Art at OOA Gallery; Ethereal Essence: Portrait of the African Diaspora at Curtiss Jacobs Gallery, New York; Volta New York Art Fair with OOA Gallery; a duo show with Opeyemi Matthew Olukotun at OOA Gallery; How Far? at Forte Kulanshi Art Space; presentations with The CAMP Gallery in Florida and Artfully Spaced Gallery in California; Budapest International Art Fair; and earlier exhibitions in Nigeria, Kazakhstan and London.

In 2021, The Journey entered the collection of the Almaty Museum of Kazakhstan. That same year, Zibor received a certificate of recognition from OFR Russia for humanitarian work in Kazakhstan and Russia.

Available Works

Explore a selection of available works by Moses Zibor at OOA Gallery, including figurative oil paintings that explore African Surrealism, dreams, water, flowers, spiritual symbolism, resilience, rebirth and the transformative power of imagination.