Taking centre stage and reasserting the presence, complexity and creative sovereignty of Black identity in contemporary visual art, contemporary art gallery, O’DA Art Gallery, is proud to present a powerful group exhibition, titled, Black Figuration Is Alive and Well.
The exhibition, which is currently holding at the gallery in Victoria Island, Lagos, kicked off on Sunday, July 13, 2025 will conclude next weekend, August 9, 2025.
In a global climate that questions the relevance of Black portraiture, this show is offering a firm and vibrant response: our faces, our stories, and our visions matter, now more than ever.
Featured artists include Reuben Ugbine and Djakou Kassi Nathalie: reinvigorating African sculpture with references to spirituality, heritage, and surreal form.
Mobolaji Ogunrosoye, Orry Studio and Lakin Ogunbanwo: deconstructing photography and collage to explore memory, beauty, and layered identity.
Anthony Nsofor, Isaac Emokpae and Joseph Ogbeide: using linework and abstraction to examine family, ancestry and cultural preservation.
Soji Adesina, Chika Idu and Olajide Ajayi (LA Draws): diving into Afro-surrealism to interrogate dreams, technology and diasporic memory.
Taiye Idahor and Stephen Price: offering emotionally textured works that reflect on freedom, femininity and inherited memory.
Simon Ojeaga’s rhythmic “fractellations” evoke the meditative, emotional quality of Yinka Bernie’s soulful soundscapes.
Opeyemi Olukotun presents poignant realist portraits that honour everyday Black life with dignity and empathy.
Together, these artists demonstrate that Black figuration is not static or reductive, it is expansive, experimental and urgent. Far from fading, it continues to evolve as a vital force of cultural commentary and self-affirmation.
Gallery Director and curator of this exhibition, Obida Obioha, said, “The ongoing prominence of figuration in Black and African art stands not as aesthetic repetition, but as an urgent political and cultural gesture, a reclaiming of presence, history, and imaginative sovereignty.”