Nigerian visual artist Aderopo Afolabi

has presented his artistic project Women Living With Albinism as part of Undiscovered Benin 3.0, the contemporary visual arts exhibition organised by Thought Pyramid Art Centre.
The exhibition, which started on Sunday,4 October and ends on 16 October, brought Aderopo’s practice into the contemporary Nigerian art landscape, presenting a body of work concerned with identity, representation, inclusion, visibility and the ways individuals and communities are seen and understood.
Women Living With Albinism is a collaborative project developed with women living with albinism. Through photography, Afolabi explores how people who have historically been represented through stereotypes of vulnerability, difference or pity can instead be portrayed as confident, accomplished and self-defined individuals.

The project is rooted in Aderopo’s wider artistic interest in representation and the social power of photography. Rather than treating portraiture simply as a means of recording appearance, he uses the medium to consider questions of identity, dignity, agency and belonging.

“With Women Living With Albinism, I wanted to create a space where the women involved could be seen beyond the assumptions that are often placed upon people with albinism,” Aderopo said. “The project is ultimately about visibility, inclusion, representation, and challenges appearance-based discrimination. I am interested in how my work can allow people to participate in shaping how they are represented, rather than having their identities defined for them.”

The presentation at Undiscovered Benin forms part of Aderopo’s continuing development as a visual artist working across Nigerian and British cultural contexts. His practice frequently considers the relationship between personal identity, cultural memory and wider questions of representation.

The Undiscovered Series, organised by Thought Pyramid Art Centre, was conceived as a platform to bring greater visibility to emerging and developing Nigerian artists. The series has expanded from Lagos to Abuja and Benin, creating opportunities for artists working across different media and perspectives to engage new audiences. The Benin edition has similarly been positioned as a platform for new voices in Nigerian contemporary art. Reporting on the exhibition highlights themes including identity, heritage, innovation and changing narratives of Nigerian society, while emphasising the importance of providing artists with opportunities to be seen, heard and engaged by wider audiences. The Nigerian Observer

In attendance at the exhibition was Lady Vivian Elabor, Director General, Edo State Tourism Agency

For Aderopo, exhibiting Women Living With Albinism within this context represents an opportunity to continue a conversation around representation that has developed throughout his practice.

His earlier project, Hijab Women, examined visibility, identity, belonging and appearance-based discrimination through portraiture of women who wear the hijab in Britain. His Black Women and African Textiles project similarly explores African textiles as carriers of cultural memory, heritage and identity, particularly in relation to Black women’s experiences.
Together, these bodies of work reflect Aderopo’s broader interest in using photography to examine how cultural and social identities are constructed, represented and experienced.

Afolabi holds an MA in Photography from Arts University Bournemouth, United Kingdom’s Arts and Design University, and he has developed a practice after graduation centred on identity, representation, cultural memory and the experiences of communities that are often underrepresented or misunderstood. His approach combines portraiture and collaboration to create bodies of work that encourage audiences to reconsider established assumptions about the people represented.
His work has subsequently received recognition through Portrait of Britain, with one of his works selected as a winner and later appearing on the cover of Portrait of Britain Vol. 5.
Speaking about the significance of exhibiting in Benin, Aderopo said:

“I am interested in an Artistic space where different experiences can meet. Coming from Nigeria and developing my practice in Britain has made me increasingly conscious of the conversations that exist between the two cultural environments. Exhibiting this work in Nigeria allows the project to return to a cultural context that is important to my own identity, while continuing the wider conversation about representation, visibility and belonging.”
The Benin presentation also forms part of Aderopo’s broader ambition to develop photographic projects that connect artistic practice with social and cultural questions. His future work will continue to explore African and diasporic identity, cultural memory, representation and belonging, while creating opportunities for communities to participate in how their experiences are documented and understood.
His participation at Undiscovered Benin follows his recent exhibition activity in Britain, including his presentation of Women Living with Albinism at the Bradford African Festival of Arts 2026, where the work was exhibited as part of the festival’s contemporary African arts programme.

Through Women Living With Albinism, Afolabi continues to position photography not only as a form of portraiture, but as a means of cultural documentation, dialogue and representation, contributing to a growing contemporary African visual language concerned with identity, inclusion and lived experience.