IBAND Magazine

27/08/2026

Cover | Olawale Fasuyi : The Weight of a Name, the Legacy of Art – “I see myself not as the beginning of the story, but as a bridge between generations.”

The first time Olawale Fasuyi played host to the Auchi Art Royale ’99 exhibition 1499 Art Force at his gallery, on Sunday, July 12, 2026, his humility and attention to the exhibiting artists and enthusiasts despite the downpour on that fateful Sunday left a lasting impression. It was a small gesture that revealed something larger about the man behind the gallery. Ireho Aito of iBAND Magazine had an encounter with Fasuyi, exploring family, art, legacy, collecting and the responsibility of carrying a name deeply rooted in Nigeria’s art history.

The Fasuyi name already carries weight in Nigerian art history. His father, T.A. Fasuyi, was among the modernist generation that helped shape the path for those who came after. Now, with two of his works returning to public view at Lineage of Masters II at the Yusuf Grillo Museum in October, there is something deeply nostalgic about seeing a modernist voice from that generation speak again through his paintings.

As the Yoruba say, “Orúkọ rere sàn ju wúrà lọ” a good name is better than gold. In Igbo, “Afamefuna” speaks to the enduring significance of a name and what it carries forward. The Fasuyi name is etched into Nigeria’s art and cultural history, and today it remains an art behemoth.

In this Cover Edition, Fasuyi reflects on growing up in a home he describes as “a gallery and museum fused together,” his journey from almost three decades in the Corporate sector to becoming a collector and gallery owner, and the responsibility of preserving a family legacy while creating his own chapter in the story of Nigerian art.

Words Ireho Aito | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Photographs courtesy Olawale Fasuyi and Youngbishoppictures

Art was part of Olawale Fasuyi’s childhood long before it became his business. He grew up in a home shaped by the artistic practice and collecting passion of his father,
Read more...https://ibandmagazine.com/2026/08/27/cover-olawale-fasuyi-the-weight-of-a-name-the-legacy-of-art-i-see-myself-not-as-the-beginning-of-the-story-but-as-a-bridge-

26/08/2026

Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Meeting Point Series – Theophilus Adewuyi Walks the Pathways of People’s Memories in His Portfolio

Theophilus Adewuyi’s Meeting Point portfolio is a series of 12 paintings creating genuine memories and connecting with people. It is a pathway we all walk every day, whether we recognise it or not. We meet people in different places, under different circumstances and at different moments in our lives. Some encounters last for years; others last only for a few minutes. Yet, somehow, each meeting leaves something behind.

Instantly, as one encounters this body of work, the mind travels to Portfolio of Art and Literature by Bruce Onobrakpeya that masterclass treasure filled with a remarkable body of illustrations from one of Nigeria’s grandmasters.

Words Ireho Aito | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Artwork and photographs courtesy Theophilus Adewuyi

Theophilus Adewuyi new series, Meeting Point, a body of 12 paintings, grows from this fascination with encounters of the people we meet as we move through different places, the impressions they leave behind and the possibility that paths separated by time and distance may cross again. But for anyone who has followed Adewuyi’s work, the idea is hardly new. It has been quietly present in his practice for years, appearing in his fascination with familiar faces, women and their hairstyles, couples, families, music, movement, cultural identity and the emotional lives of ordinary people.

“I didn’t want to stay stuck in one place,” Adewuyi says. “I wanted to explore how people from different backgrounds live and express themselves.”

That desire to keep moving has a lot to do with his own story. Born in 1998 and raised in Ada, Osun State, Adewuyi grew up around images before he began making them. His father was a photographer, and the young Theophilus became fascinated by the family’s collection of black-and-white photographs. Read more...
https://ibandmagazine.com/2026/08/26/dont-keep-your-art-in-the-finger-meeting-point-series-theophilus-adewuyi-walks-the-pathways-of-peoples-memories-in-his-portfolio/

25/08/2026

Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Solomon Oguvre Finds Freedom in Leather at Mind Calories Residency “The residency gave me the environment to play.”

There are moments in an artist’s journey when making art becomes more than producing another work. It becomes a process of questioning, unlearning, experimenting and discovering what else the artist is capable of doing. For Solomon Oguvre, his recently concluded Mind Calories Residency became one of those moments.

Words Ireho Aito | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Photographs/Images courtesy Solomon Oguvre

The residency did not simply give him time and space to make art. It gave him permission to play.

Our conversation about his journey, his leather practice and the experience of the residency gave us the opportunity to know the destination of the artist with A – Can – Spirit. It was fitting that the conversation happened in an artist’s studio space where ideas are tested, materials are touched and creative decisions are made. This is precisely the kind of encounter iBAND Magazine continues to represent: going beyond the finished artwork to visit artists where the work begins, where the smell of materials, the unfinished pieces and the evidence of labour reveal another side of the artist.

For Solomon Oguvre, the story began much earlier in Warri, Delta State. He was born on June 12, 1994, to Shedrack and Joy Oguvre, and what a day to come alive.

June 12 carries a special place in Nigeria’s history. It is a date forever associated with the country’s long struggle for democracy and the sacrifices made by those who stood for democratic ideals. Today, June 12 is observed as Democracy Day, a reminder of a defining chapter in Nigeria’s political journey. Read more...
https://ibandmagazine.com/2026/08/23/dont-keep-your-art-in-the-finger-solomon-oguvre-finds-freedom-in-leather-at-mind-calories-residency-the-residency-gave-me-the-environment-to-play/

25/08/2026

ARTROAD – Exhibition | Everyday Life 2026: Five Talking Points from a Photographic Conversation in Ibadan

There is something about Ibadan that makes everyday life feel like a story waiting to be remembered. Perhaps it is the city’s layered history, its old neighbourhoods, its busy streets, its writers and intellectuals, or the generations of people who have passed through it leaving behind fragments of lives, ideas and memories. For Nseabasi Akpan, a photographer whose own journey began in Ibadan, the city is more than a location for Everyday Life 2026. It is part of the story.

Curated by Nseabasi Akpan, and sponsored by African Culture Fund, the ongoing photography exhibition at the National Museum of Unity brings together photographers from Nigeria, Africa and beyond to look closely at the people, places and fleeting experiences that make up ordinary existence. In doing so, Everyday Life enters a city with a long relationship with storytelling, documentation and intellectual exchange.

As the exhibition continues in National Museum of Unity Ibadan, here are five talking points worth considering.

Words Ireho Aito | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Photographs credit : Caleb Ishaya Oseshi and Victor Oluwayoju

Read more...https://ibandmagazine.com/2026/08/24/artroad-exhibition-everyday-life-2026-five-talking-points-from-a-photographic-conversation-in-ibadan/

25/08/2026

ARTROAD | Àsà Heritage Africa Foundation Opens Its Doors in Gbagada, Lagos

At 42 Awolokun Street, Gbagada, Lagos, Àsà Heritage Africa Art Space opened its doors with a clear focus on African heritage, creating a place where culture, art and history can meet in meaningful conversation.

Words Ireho Aito | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Photographs credit : Solodynamics

On Friday, July 31, 2026, Àsà Heritage Africa Foundation opened the doors of its new art space, Àsà Heritage Africa Art Space, situated at 42 Awolokun Street, Gbagada, Lagos, welcoming guests into a setting designed to bring together African art, heritage, creativity, knowledge and community. At the centre of the initiative is Dr. Oluwatoyin Zainab Sogbesan, the architect, cultural historian, art and heritage specialist and museologist whose work has consistently examined the relationship between objects, memory, identity and the way African stories are presented.

For patrons and enthusiasts, the opening feels like a natural extension of a journey they have followed through Sogbesan’s work.

Earlier this year, iBAND Magazine featured her three-year project, Èrè Ìbejì: Memory, Spirit, and Continuity in Yoruba Culture, a deeply researched exploration of the sacred twin figures of Yoruba culture. The project questioned the way Èrè Ìbejì have sometimes been reduced in international museum catalogues to descriptions such as “male wooden figure” and “female wooden figure”, stripping them of their names, histories, spiritual meanings and relationships with families. Sogbesan’s research, which took her from museum collections to communities and palace spaces in Oyo, sought to restore those meanings.

Read more...https://ibandmagazine.com/2026/08/24/artroad-asa-heritage-africa-foundation-opens-its-doors-in-gbagada-lagos/

17/08/2026

Cover | Nseabasi Akpan: Nse –Abasi! He Looks Upon the Lord, Through the Lens of African Photography

What happens when a photographer turns his lens towards Africa and refuses to see only what everyone else sees? That is where the story of Nseabasi Akpan begins. His name, Nse-Abasi, carries the meaning “I look upon the Lord” is a spiritual gift to cherish. But the real gift may be what he chooses to see, preserve and reveal through his camera.

Words Ireho Aito | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! All Photographs courtesy Nseabasi Akpan

For more than two decades, Nseabasi Akpan has travelled with photography as both companion and language. His journey has taken him from the streets and communities of Ibadan across West Africa and into East and Southern Africa, and further to countries including Ethiopia, Tanzania, Namibia, Croatia, the Netherlands, Finland, Turkey and the Czech Republic. His travels have not simply been about crossing borders. They have been opportunities to encounter people, cultures, landscapes and stories, and to understand how photography can build connections across them.

In 2018 and 2019, his Open Africa photography road trip took that philosophy further. Beginning from Ibadan, Akpan travelled through major cities across Africa, working with local artists, schools, NGOs and youth centres through workshops, photowalks, artist talks, exhibitions and collaborations. The journey was as much about people as it was about photographs.

That spirit of movement remains central to his practice.

Akpan describes photography as a means of giving society a voice. Over the years, while speaking about his work, he explained that he had always seen photography as a tool to “voice” society’s plight. That conviction has remained visible in a practice that moves comfortably between street photography, reportage, documentary and social storytelling. His subjects have included politics, football, religion, culture, migration, the environment and the intimate realities of everyday people. Read more...
https://ibandmagazine.com/2026/08/17/cover-nseabasi-akpan-nse-abasi-he-looks-upon-the-lord-through-the-lens-of-african-photography/

15/08/2026

ARTROAD – Exhibition | Director’s Commentary: Kagho Idhebor Returns to Jebba Street Through Film and Photography

JCAA’s exhibitions have consistently found new ways to connect art with history, memory and lived experience. With Director’s Commentary, Seun Alli and June Creative Art Advisory turn their attention to the creative process itself, beginning with Kagho Idhebor’s My Jebba Story.

Words Ireho Aito | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Photographs courtesy June Creative Art Advisory

June Creative Art Advisory has continued to expand the possibilities of exhibition-making in Lagos, moving between contemporary art, history, photography, music and cultural memory. Founded by curator and cultural strategist Seun Alli, JCAA has become increasingly recognised for creating programmes that do more than place works in exhibition spaces; they build contexts around the stories being told.

From Afrobeat Rebellion: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, presented at the Ecobank Pan African Centre and curated by Seun Alli, to the Murtala Mohammed commemorative exhibition at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, and more recently Tunde Owolabi’s Without Rest: The Crown We Gain at No Parking Lagos, JCAA’s projects have demonstrated a consistent interest in bringing history, people and contemporary creative practice into closer conversation.

It is within this evolving curatorial practice that Director’s Commentary, JCAA’s renewed programme exploring the ideas, processes and visual worlds behind moving-image practices, takes shape. Read more...https://ibandmagazine.com/2026/08/15/artroad-exhibition-directors-commentary-kagho-idhebor-returns-to-jebba-street-through-film-and-photography/

15/08/2026

ARTROAD – Exhibition | Lineage of Masters II: Five Talking Points from the Exhibition Media Briefing

As Lineage of Masters II prepares to return to the Yusuf Grillo Museum in Lagos, the forthcoming exhibition is already beginning to reveal a story larger than a commemoration. Five key talking points from the media briefing capture the thinking behind this second edition and why the exhibition is becoming an important conversation about Nigerian art, memory and artistic inheritance.

Words Ireho Aito | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Photographs credit Benjamin Oladapo and Hakeem Mujeeb Olamilekan

The title is a reflection of Yusuf Grillo’s enduring influence.
Lineage of Masters is not simply a title chosen to honour a celebrated artist. It speaks directly to the life and work of Prof. Yusuf Adebayo Cameron Grillo and the generations of artists who encountered him as a teacher, mentor, colleague and master. Grillo’s legacy was never restricted to his paintings. He helped shape artists, institutions and ideas, making the concept of lineage particularly relevant to an exhibition that seeks to explore what remains after a master has passed on. The second edition, themed Continuity and Contemporary Expression, extends that conversation by asking how the values, discipline and artistic ideas associated with Grillo continue to resonate in contemporary practice.

The masters are meeting again.
One of the significant features of this edition is the presence of artists from Grillo’s own generation and artistic circle. The participation of figures such as T.A. Fasuyi, Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya and Jerome Elaiho gives the exhibition a special historical weight. These are not artists being brought into the story from a distance; they belong to the generation that helped shape the foundations of modern Nigerian art alongside Grillo. Their presence creates a rare opportunity to see the pioneers of Nigerian modernism within the same conversation as succeeding generations. It is a meeting of artistic histories, where the past does not simply sit behind glass but continues to speak through the practitioners who lived through it. Read more...
https://ibandmagazine.com/2026/08/1

14/08/2026

ARTROAD – Exhibition | Press Release ORI II: 30 Nigerian Sculptors Explore Identity, Memory and Consciousness

Sculpture takes centre stage once again as ORI II, the second edition of the biennial of contemporary Nigerian sculpture, brings together 30 emerging and established Nigerian sculptors to explore identity, memory, consciousness and lived experience through the human head.

Edited by iBAND Editorial team | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger!

Curated by Ato Arinze and Uche Obasi, ORI II takes its conceptual cue from the Yoruba understanding of Ori,  the “inner head” associated with consciousness, character, selfhood and destiny. But rather than treating the head simply as a physical form, the exhibition considers it as a vessel of memory and meaning: carrying ancestry, cultural history, belief, psychological experience, leadership, aspiration and the complexities of becoming.

In doing so, ORI II places contemporary Nigerian sculpture firmly within the wider conversation about how individuals understand themselves and their place within society.

But the exhibition is also driven by a larger ambition: to make sculpture more visible within Nigeria’s contemporary art ecosystem.

“That’s the reason why we created the exhibition, to make sculpture more visible in the Nigerian art ecosystem,” says curator Ato Arinze in a chat with iBAND Magazine. He points to the distinctive position of ORI as a platform dedicated entirely to sculpture, bringing together artists at different stages of their careers.

“Aside from the Sculpture Association exhibition, ORI exhibition is the only all Sculptors exhibition that features a great number of artists, young, mid-career and established,” he says. Read more...
https://ibandmagazine.com/2026/08/14/artroad-exhibition-press-release-ori-ii-30-nigerian-sculptors-explore-identity-memory-and-consciousness/

14/08/2026