Sculptors’ association converges for Elixir 3 exhibition

'Passion of Rage' (mixed media, 28" x 8" x 12", dated 2024 ) by Henry Unuigboje.

PROF Nelson Edewor, Dr Olusola Kukoyi. Dr Kunle Adeyemi, Dr  Adeola Balogun. Dr Ken Njoku, Dr Taiwo Sullyman, Akeem Muraina. Ato Arinze. Anthonia Okogwu, Kenny Badaru and Obadan Chris are artists who share something in common as regards sculpture.

'Sharjah Biennial 16' hosts 140 artists, 80 new commissions

One of the images expected to define Sharjah biennial 16, UAE.

THE 16th edition of Sharjah Biennial themed to carry opens from

6 February–15 June 2025, at Al Hamriyah, Al Dh,, aid, Kalba and Al Madam, among others UAE cities.

According to Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) works by more than 140 participants, including over 80 new commissions, will be presented across the Emirate of Sharjah. 

Curated by Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala and Zeynep Öz, Sharjah Biennial 16 will convene under the title to carry, a multivocal and open-ended proposition. Examining an ever-expanding list of what to carry, and how to carry it, the Biennial is an invitation to encounter the different formations and positions of the five curators as well as the constellation of resonances they have gathered. 

The Biennial theme, ‘to carry’, entails understanding our precarity within spaces that are not our own while staying responsive to these sites through the cultures that we hold. It also signifies a bridge between multiple temporalities, encompassing intergenerational stories and various modes of inheritance. What do we carry when it is time to travel, flee or move on? What are the passages that we form as we migrate between territories and across time? What do we carry when we remain? What do we carry when we survive?

Thus, ‘to carry’ proposes the Biennial as a collective wayfinding and a modality of sense-making and insistent looking—back, inwards and across—instead of a ‘turning away’ amidst tides of annihilation and tyranny. Sharjah Biennial 16 curatorial projects reflect on what it means to carry change and its technological, societal, animistic or ritualistic possibilities as community doulas would hold space for others during moments of transition. 

As carriers of different processes and offerings, the curators have cultivated their projects together and apart, allowing room for listening and mutual support. Diverse curatorial methodologies—from residencies, workshops and collective production to writing, sonic experiences and expanded publications—will be constantly present in the milieu of the Biennial, encouraging critical conversations and the formation of an evolving collection of narratives told from multiple perspectives, geographies and languages.

‘The constellation of diverse methodologies that the five curators have gathered offers audiences the opportunity to engage in thought-provoking dialogues bridging the local context with global narratives about identity, movement, change and collectivity,' said Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation. ‘By centring the act of carrying, Sharjah Biennial 16 offers a space for imagining new collective futures while recognising the weight of shared histories and experiences.’

According to the curators, ‘Our projects come under the umbrella of a question rather than a theme. What does it entail to carry a home, ancestors and political formations with you? This spirit of inquiry coalesces with artistic methods grounded in stories of change and movement, intergenerational kinship, lament and ritual, experimental pedagogies, knowledge of land and sea terrains. Attesting to the responsibility as both guest and host, we conjure possibilities of acting in the world and being together through tenderness, failure and rage as gestures of care, resource exchange and alliance building.’

 The Sharjah Biennial 16 title, to carry, is a multivocal and open-ended proposition. The ever-expanding list of what to carry, and how to carry it, is an invitation to encounter our different formations and positions and to gather a constellation of resonances. 

The Biennial theme, ‘to carry’, entails understanding our precarity within spaces that are not our own while staying responsive to these sites through the cultures that we hold. It also signifies a bridge between multiple temporalities of embodied pasts and imagined futures, encompassing intergenerational stories and various modes of inheritance. What do we carry when it is time to travel, flee or move on? What are the passages that we form as we migrate between territories and across time? What do we carry when we remain? What do we carry when we survive?

Thus, ‘to carry’ proposes the Biennial as a collective wayfinding, a modality of sense-making and insistent looking—back, inwards and across—instead of a ‘turning away’ amidst tides of annihilation and tyranny. Sharjah Biennial 16 curatorial projects reflect on what it means to carry change and its technological, societal, animistic or ritualistic possibilities. As community doulas would hold space for others during moments of transition, the projects collectively form a threshold space for experiments and collaborations, in which we compose divergent stories, understand failures and dark moments, and hold room for tenderness and rage. 

As carriers of different processes and offerings, the curators have cultivated their projects together and apart, allowing room for listening, mutual support and the sharing of resources. Diverse curatorial methodologies—from residencies, workshops and collective production to writing, sonic experiences and expanded publications—are constantly present in the milieu of the Biennial, encouraging critical conversations. Sometimes, projects by different curators sit together in one venue to form a wild  polyphony; at other times, they occupy an entire space to recite a story. Together, they form an evolving collection of narratives told from multiple perspectives, geographies and languages.

From 'Black Figures, Black Masks', Okwuosa generates youthful visual texture

'I Am More Than What You Think I Am' (acrylic on canvas, 121.5 x 96cm, dated 2021-22) by Tobenna Okwuosa.

WHEN Tobenna Okwuosa opens his solo art exhibition titled Black Figures, Black Masks: Likeness and Beyond, on September 21, ending 30, 2024 at Signature Beyond Art Gallery, 107, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, a new period beckons for the artist. 

'Women of Elephant Tusk' in empowerment, cultural cohesion.

The artist, Rewa, in front of one of her works. 

Portraits of traditional matriarchs that celebrate century old systems of African feminism and leadership, coinciding with Black History month in the UK, and the Africa Center’s 60th anniversary opens at the center in London on September 8, 2024, showing till end of the month.

How Prof Buhari captured 'Yusuf Grillo like you've never seen'

'Omi Iye' (oil on canvas, 61 x 122cm, dated 2018) by Yusuf Grillo.

CURRENTLY showing as Yusuf Grillo's first posthumous solo art exhibition at Yusuf Grillo Museum, Ikeja, Lagos, the works on display have strengthened to the rich visual vocabulary of Nigeria. Titled Yusuf Grillo Like You've Never Seen, the exhibition opened on August 24, ending 30, 2024.

Art on chessboard with world record holder Onakoya, artist Olagoke

Chess world record holder Tunde Onakoya (left) and artist Lanre Olagoke MBE.

WHEN a U.K-based group, Powerful Media, organised 50 of the Most Influential Nigerians Worldwide event in late July, art and chess met. The chess record holder, Tunde Onakoya and artist, Lanre Olagoke MBE used the chessboard to showcase intelligence and creativity.

Onwenu's last major honour of 'Art of Afrobeats' award

Onyeka Onwenu during the Art of Afrobeats Award night in Lagos.

AS the music industry mourns the death of singer, actress, and journalist, Onyeka Onwenu, documenting her sojourn would be incomplete without one of the last major honours she received recently.

Soyinka at 90...reflection on Maya Angelou, superlatives of Nobel Prize

Prof Wole Soyinka speaking at Africa Centre, UK, during one of the Soyinka@90 events.

WHEN Prof Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka was given the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, American author, Maya Angelou (1928-2014), had predicted the event a year ahead. In 1985, Angelou nominated Soyinka to win an international literary prize of which she was pained that her expectation was not met after a German picked the award.

Separating Yorùbá religious tradition from Ìṣẹ̀ṣe (2)

'Arugba' religious scene associated with 'Ìṣẹ̀ṣe', during a yearly festival, Osun Osogbo, in Osun State, Southwest, Nigeria.

•historically, there was no  homogenous Yoruba religious belief 

•facts have uncovered widespread Yoruba atheists of ancient eras

By Ayojinmi Adeolu, Biodun Olojede-Akiola, Idayat Obaduwa-Babajide, Matthew Ola Adejinmi, and Bunmi Olokiki

FIRST part, published on August 21, 2023, of the same research work titled 'Separating Yorùbá religious tradition from Ìṣẹ̀ṣe', has established the difference between the two subjects. We established, with facts, that Ìṣẹ̀ṣe as a religious belief is different from the tradition and culture of the Yoruba. 

Fiofori, Ibrahim, Orara...leaving strong legacies of visual culture

Book cover of Tam Fiofori's celebration of the 1979 Benin monarch coronation.

HAMID Ibrahim, Tam Fiofori, and Zinno Orara threw the community of visual arts in mourning within few months. Most disturbing was June 25, 2024 when Fiofori and Orara reportedly died on the same day. Ibrahim died on March 31, 2024.

How Prince William, Musawa others celebrated Olagoke's British honour

Lanre Olagoke MBE with his wife, Simone, displaying his award inside Windsor castle, shortly after the ceremony led by Prince William.

THE Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) award to Nigerian-British artist, Lanre Olagoke started at Windsor Castle, U.K. Conferring the MBE on Olagoke, representative of the British monarchy, Prince William described Olagoke's activism in art as long service to humanity.

Monochromes of feminity with Sholola's 'Be Here Now'

'Grounding I' (black tea, ink, charcoal, pastel and acrylic on canvas, 24 x 38in dated 2023) by Laju Sholola.

RENDERED in black tea, ink, charcoal, pastel and acrylic, the figurative expressions of Laju Sholola brings freshness onto the Lagos art space. Sholola's works, devoid of stereotypes loud colours, capture the tender, candid emotions of feminity.

For Soyinka at 90, ‘Ebrohimie Road, A Museum of Memory’ premieres in Lagos, Ibadan, other cities

Prof Wole Soyinka, captured in an archival picture on Ebrohimie Road.

AS part of Prof Wole Soyinka at 90 celebration, a documentary titled Ebrohimie Road: a Museum of Memory, based on the little building on the University of Ibadan (UI) campus, where the poet, playwright, memoirist, essayist and polemicist, once lived will be premiered. While he was a teacher at the UI, Nigeria's premier tertiary institution, Soyinka loved in the building.