Eight young Nigerian artists, aged 19 to 26, showed their work at Angels and Muse in Ikoyi, Lagos, from 21 – 28 March 2026 in a group exhibition suggesting a generation negotiating western influence and local artistic identity.<\/p>\n
As evidence of this outward pull, it is obvious that Chuka Onwordi has anime on his mind. His digital art pieces, Don’t Cry and Incubation, owe a conspicuous debt to that style, as does his sister Awele Onwordi’s Nicely Captured. <\/p>\n
Her other work at the exhibition, Space Girl, is reminiscent of Cartoon Network’s Powerpuff Girls. By showcasing these specific works, both artists are proving something that has been true for every generation but seems of especially important to GenZ: the individual’s physical geography is only a slice of her influence, and that doesn’t have to be the part she wants to advertise. <\/p>\n
Extending this sense of displacement, Joshua Bakare’s 3D art, represented here by A\u00e4R\u00fc, Pathway to A\u00e4R\u00fc, and E major, is otherworldly. Even as the last is dominated by three seemingly marbled embodiments of the human female form, the environment is more dreamscape than realistic.<\/p>\n
If the Onwordi siblings have made art imbued with whimsy, the dimensions of Bakare’s lend his work an almost palpable solidity. All three are, however, very much in thrall to media from other climes. <\/p>\n
Nigerian earthiness<\/p>\n
Considering this homage to the non-Nigerian, Ade(to)juwon Adeniyi’s outdoor photographs – Ikare-Akoko, Ondo. Lagos and Ade Oba – are almost shocking in their Nigerian earthiness.<\/p>\n
In the same grounded register, Lohi Simone Akharume, also a photographer, is interested in the corporeal. One photo shows the nape and a slice of back garbed in red fabric. Another, Fruitless, shows a half-clad man eyes closed and reclined in a circle, one leg raised. He could be sleepwalking on air and if he’s dreaming, he’s probably seeing other worlds. <\/p>\n
As the exhibiting artists are all young, some pop culture representation is inevitable. This, after all, is the generation that has inherited the global push of Afrobeats music over the last few years.<\/p>\n
So, it is surprising that the most conspicuous pop music representation here is Grace Jones. The 1970s star is set in acrylic by Lasisi Kehinde Charles in a piece named Quiet Rebellion which could well pass as an alias for the entire exhibition. Her famed defiance is probably the dominant mood for this group of youngsters. <\/p>\n
Another exhibiting artist, Ajilore Kehinde, goes for pop culture through sports with a Nigerian iteration of Brazilian footballer Ronaldo Lu\u00eds Naz\u00e1rio de Lima, giving him darker skin and tribal marks. <\/p>\n
Creative freedom defines artists<\/p>\n
Structurally, this lack of a fixed identity extends to the exhibition itself, as the pieces, curated by Awele Onwordi, do not appear to be based on an obvious theme. The curator says as much, noting in her curatorial statement that the exhibition “invites audiences to engage with a shifting artistic landscape where tradition and disruption coexist”. <\/p>\n
That is indeed true. More pointedly, however, she lands on a greater truth when she continues in the curatorial statement, that the exhibition is a “platform for visibility, opportunity, and creative freedom”.<\/p>\n
That, ultimately, is the exhibition’s clearest achievement and its central argument: the visibility and creative freedom it has offered its participating artists. <\/p>\n
Awele Onwordi and her colleagues are here and they would like to alert us to the ways her generation looks and sees. One hopes that all the artists here continue working, refining their philosophies and practice. <\/p>\n
The time to grow will come – and, maybe then, the troupe will combine their wonderfully diverse foreign influences with a close look at their immediate environment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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