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| The Quiet Roar (acrylic on textured canvas, 76x90 cm, dated 2026) by Yakun Kareem. |
By Ola Alowoloke
The visual and spiritual language of masquerade come as a central theme for artist, Yakubu Kareem. Also, Israel Padonu shows 'home' as a theme beyond the boundaries of geography.
Through expressive colour, layered textures, movement and powerful figures, Kareem probes spiritual and ancestral connections. His solo art exhibition titled What Refuses to Be Forgotten, showing from September 19-26, 2026 at Signature Beyond Gallery, 107 Awolowo Road Ikoyi, lagos, Nigeria, explores the relationship between the visible and the unseen, the individual and the ancestral, the past and the present.
For Padonu, his solo exhibition When I “Sea” You, I Think of Home invites people to think about home beyond the boundaries of geography. The exhibition which opens on September 19-26, 2026 at Signature Beyond Gallery, 107 Awolowo Road Ikoyi, lagos, inspires people to consider home as something carried—in memory, in the body, in culture, in family stories, in landscapes and in the traditions that continue to shape us.
Among the works for Kareem are titles such as The Ancestor, The Elder Sits With Fire, The One Who Watches, The General of Spirits, The Quiet Roar and The One Who Comes First, all suggesting a world where memory is alive and the past continues to speak to the present. These works are not simply representations of masquerades; they are reflections on identity, inheritance and cultural continuity. The figures seem to carry stories within them. Some appear to dance, some watch, some arrive, some follow, while others stand with an almost commanding stillness. Together, they create a procession of memory.
The exhibition reminds people that culture is not preserved only in books, museums or archives. It survives through the people, ceremonies, gestures, symbols, stories and collective remembrance. It survives because each generation finds a way to carry something forward.
In this sense, the masquerade becomes a powerful metaphor for memory itself. Beneath the layers is history; within the movement is tradition; behind the mystery is identity.
What are the ancestors still saying to the people? What traditions continue to shape who the people are? What memories have the people inherited without even knowing it? And what must the people refuse to allow the passage of time to erase? These are the questions being asked by Kareem's What Refuses to Be Forgotten.
"The exhibition presents a compelling collection of works that explores memory, ancestry, spirituality, cultural identity, and the enduring influence of tradition," Signature Beyond states. "At the heart of the exhibition is the masquerade, presented as both a cultural symbol and a dynamic visual language."
Signature Beyond adds that through out the works, masquerade figures appear in moments of movement and stillness—dancing, observing, arriving, blessing, following, and commanding attention. Each figure contributes to a broader reflection on how cultural memory continues to exist within contemporary life.
The gallery notes that Kareem’s expressive treatment of colour, texture, movement, and form gives his figures a striking sense of vitality. "They seem to emerge from a space between memory and imagination, carrying an atmosphere that is at once mysterious, celebratory, spiritual, and contemplative.
According to Signature Beyond, some of the works form part of a larger visual narrative about identity, heritage, and what survives across generations. Such pieces include The Ancestor, The Elder Sits With Fire, The Blessing Dance, The Smiling Spirit, The One Who Comes First, The General of Spirits, The Trickster Dance, The Quiet Roar, Dust and Fire, and Falling Unbound.
For gallery, the exhibition speaks to the importance of keeping cultural narratives alive through contemporary art. Kareem demonstrates that tradition does not need to remain confined to the past. It can be reinterpreted, transformed, and experienced through new artistic languages while retaining its emotional and cultural power.
The gallery argues that What Refuses to Be Forgotten is an exhibition about presence the presence of those who came before us, the presence of tradition within modern life, and the presence of memories that continue to influence the people's understanding of themselves and their communities.
"I paint Egungun not as costume, but as presence. In Lagos of 2026, the ancestors did not disappear. They changed clothes. They took raffia and turned it to brushstroke. They took ritual and turned it to color," Kareem said in his Artist Statement.
"These 14 works are 14 conversations. Some come with power. Some with laughter. Some sit. Some run. Some come in pairs, because memory never walks alone.
"The blue faces are not masks. They are the sky remembering us. The yellow raffia is not decoration. It is grass, fire, and gold all at once. The pink, purple, and orange grounds are Lagos itself — loud, spiritual, and alive."
Kareem explained that the exhibition is not about documenting tradition, but "I am proving it is still moving."
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| Clustered Remembrance (charcoal and acrylic on canvas, 153x153 cm, dated 2026) by Israel Padonu. |
Padonu’s paintings emerge from a deeply personal relationship with Badagry, a place whose historical significance extends far beyond its physical landscape. Yet, rather than presenting Badagry solely through the weight of its history, the artist approaches it as a living environment—one shaped by community, spirituality, nature, resilience and cultural continuity.
At the centre of this exploration is the sea. The sea becomes both landscape and metaphor: a space of movement, separation, connection and remembrance. It carries stories from one generation to another, while reminding us that places can hold memories long after people have departed from them.
Padonu’s distinctive visual language further deepens this encounter. His figures appear to emerge from and disappear into their surroundings. Faces are partially revealed, bodies become intertwined with organic forms, and layers of colour suggest memories that are constantly being reconstructed. His paintings do not always give us complete answers. Instead, they invite us to look, pause and remember.
There is also an important dialogue between the personal and the collective. The artist’s experience of loss becomes a doorway into larger questions about ancestry, identity and belonging. What begins as an intimate meditation on memory expands into a reflection on what communities inherit, preserve and carry forward.
For Signature Beyond, showing Padonu's works is an opportunity to support an artistic voice that approaches contemporary African experience through an authentic and deeply personal visual vocabulary.
"Padonu reminds us that memory is not passive. It moves. It changes. It survives. And sometimes, it returns through colour, landscape, gesture and form."
In its gallery Statement, Signature Beyond Art describes Padonu's exhibition as an intimate and compelling investigation into memory, culture, place and collective belonging.
"The exhibition occupies an important position within contemporary African artistic practice because it approaches identity not as something fixed, but as something continuously shaped by place, history, environment, ancestry and experience," Signature Beyond states. "Padonu’s engagement with Badagry provides the foundation for this inquiry. Rather than treating the coastal town simply as a historical site, his practice considers it as a living cultural landscape—one where history, spirituality, family, nature and everyday life continue to intersect."
The gallery notes that Padonu's paintings transform the environment into a psychological and emotional landscape. The sea occupies a particularly significant position within this vocabulary, the gallery adds, explaining that it becomes a metaphor for the movement of people, memories and histories. It connects distant places while also holding the traces of separation. Through the sea, Padonu considers how belonging can survive distance and how memory can travel across generations.
"My artistic practice emerges from grief, memory, and the ongoing process of healing after the loss of my mother, Padonu says in his Artist Statement. "Painting has become a space of refuge and release, allowing me to transform personal emotion into reflections on history, identity, and belonging."
Excerpts from Padonu's Artist Statement: "Rooted in Badagry, an ancient coastal town in Lagos State, my work engages the sea as both landscape and metaphor.
"To me, the water is witness, passage, provider, and archive, carrying stories of labour, spirituality, migration, loss, and survival. My practice looks beyond Badagry’s dominant association with the transatlantic slave trade, drawing attention to the living cultural memory of the Ogu people and their enduring relationship with the coastline. Through multilayered figurative abstraction, I create fluid compositions informed by coastal landscapes, coconut fronds, shoreline patterns, and water currents.
"My elongated, shifting figures evoke ancestral presence, communal experience, and the emotional weight of home. When I “Sea” You, I Think of Home is an ongoing meditation on how the ocean holds memory, grief, and connection between the living and the departed. Ultimately, my practice is an act of remembrance and care—reimagining Badagry as a living archive where home becomes not simply a place, but a feeling that reture like waves."
Kareem (b. 1996), and from Edo State, Nigeria, grew up in Ikotun, Lagos, where he completed his primary and secondary education. He went on to study General Arts at Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State, earning his National Diploma (ND) in 2017, before pursuing his Higher National Diploma (HND) at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos.
Padonu (b. 1987) is a Nigerian contemporary artist from the ancient coastal town of Badagry, Lagos State. He holds a B.A. (Ed) with Honours in Creative Arts from Tai Solarin University of Education (2017).
Rooted in the shoreline realities of his hometown, Padonu’s practice explores memory, belonging, and the emotional weight of place through multilayered figurative abstraction. His work is deeply shaped by personal grief following the death of his mother, as well as Badagry’s historical identity as a former transatlantic slave route.
