Last Saturday, the National Museum, Onikan, Lagos, hosted 25 artists in what has been termed Testament of Legacy, Time & Space, a group show involving Dr. Kunle Adeyemi and his studio contacts. The show, which features painting, water-colours, paintocast, paintographs, prints, and mixed media, runs till October 17.
Started as an informal gathering of colleagues, young artists and apprentices, who sat by the foot of Adeyemi to learn, it has become a movement of creatives.
Over the years, he has encountered more than two dozen artists who, in one way or another, have passed through his orbit—apprentices, SIWES (Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme) trainees, doctoral candidates, or devoted studio acolytes. The result is not the clinical polish of a commercial fair but a visual feast.
Adeyemi, the first Nigerian to earn a PhD in practice-led studio arts under Professor Osa Dennis Egonwa’s supervision, he has chaired departments, steered a faculty as dean at YabaTech, and still somehow mounted 23 solo shows alongside over 90 group outings.
A former vice-president of the Society of Nigerian Artists and chairman of its Lagos chapter, he has quietly nurtured the idea of keeping the studio contacts of over two decades, while praying for the right time for it to take shape.
“Solos may glitter, but the true music swells from the collective,” he insisted.
“Now that I am retired from public service, I believe the moment has come to devote some of my time to the professional growth and development of all those who have, at one time or another, passed through the Kunle Adeyemi Studio.
“It has always been a God-given privilege to serve as your Studio Instructor—whether through SIWES, Industrial Attachment, Master’s or PhD research programmes, apprenticeship, or any other form of training,” he said at the preview session of the exhibition.
According to him, the objectives of establishing the practice-based exhibiting group include rekindling in us the creative spark first ignited during our studio experience; becoming more visible in the contemporary art space; and encouraging one another in fulfilling our calling as practicing artists.
Reassuring members that the group is voluntary, he said nobody is compelled to join, but stressed the belief that unity is strength.
Curator of the exhibition and CEO, Irachy Consult, Dr. Bukola Jaiyesimi, said the exhibition weaves together diverse artistic perspectives on how legacy is shaped by dimensions of time and space. She noted that the exhibition “encourages contemplation of how art captures, distils, and projects human experiences across temporal and spatial boundaries.”
She said Testament of Legacy, Time & Space “encourages contemplation of how art captures, distills, and projects human experiences across temporal; and spatial boundaries.”
She added, “visitors are invited to engage with artworks that bridge past, present and futures —testament to the enduring dialogue between creation, legacy and perception.”
Aside from Adeyemi, the line-up of exhibiting artists is heavy with educators, as well young artists. The seasoned art teacher and pastor, Aderinsoye Ademorin Aladegbongbe, leads the charge. A Yaba College of Technology lecturer since 1996, he has over13 solo shows to his credit.
Dr. Doyin Labode brings another inflection from the academics. Briefly mentored by the visual arts luminary Abiodun Olaku, and battle-tested in advertising agencies, Labode brings an illustrator’s eye and an academic’s stamina (he has supervised more than 65 projects at Federal University of UNAAB). His practice, rooted in design, bleeds into textiles, interiors, and applied visuals—proof that contemporary Nigerian art is not confined to gallery walls but spills into fabric, furniture, and everyday life.
The younger set has Jimoh Luqman, known majorly for his brushstrokes layered with chromatic verve, where faces flicker between realism and abstraction. His Innocence series, with beaded hair against pastel grounds, offers quiet defiance—a refusal to flatten African identity into a monolith.
Olumuyiwa Olusola is a watercolour artist who paints stories of resilience, joy, and tradition. His works transform everyday scenes into timeless reflections on legacy, time, together, and space. With his watercolor, he interrogates the struggles that lift.
Through his art, Olusola shares the beauty of ordinary moments and the strength they carry for generations.
Akingbade Oluwamayowa, a finalist in the African Artists’ Foundation’s Unbreakable Nigerian Spirit competition in 2008, his practice veers from painterly canvases to digital manipulations, resisting the pastime of pigeonholing artists into easy categories.
Oluwamayowa’s journey from Adeyemi’s studio apprentice to solo exhibitions abroad, epitomises an encouraging growth. His canvases, thick with oil and pastel, mine personal and environmental narratives.
By contrast, Olusegun Oduyele stays committed to the alchemy of printmaking, albeit with detours into motion graphics and painting. Having honed his craft under Adeyemi’s printmaking tutelage, he embodies the recursive loop of mentorship that runs through the show. Legacy here isn’t a title flourish but a chain link of ink, paper, and possibility.
Then there is Klotoe-Michael Daniel Abiodun, Nigerian-Beninese, who has left murals across Benin (including the continent’s longest) while juggling teaching and exhibitions.
His early training under Adeyemi sharpened his draftsmanship, but his true signature is versatility: a refusal to lock into one medium, preferring instead to mirror society’s layered complexities. Like Adeyemi, he coaches younger artists, carrying the torch forward.
Daniel takes a more muted path—browns and textured surfaces that summon the melancholy of a Lagos seldom at rest.
Photography enters the conversation through Olufemi Onagoruwa. His street photographs, often spotlighting overlooked communities battling water scarcity, insist that documentation is activism.
Also showing are Titi Badmus Ganiy, Oyetumoh Yusuf, Dayo Adeyemi, Kehinde Adenle, Ajose Ayomide, Dr Stella Awoh, Olayemi Otuyelu Madu, Lotachukwu Ayogu-Eze, Azeez Razaq and others.
