After a successful first outing, Recycling Matters a group show that examines issues of waste, utilityand material transformation within Nigeria’s contemporary socio-economic landscape, is set to hold on February 7.
Drawing from discarded rubber, scrap metal, and fabric, the exhibition reflects on patterns of consumption and disposal shaped by Nigeria’s import-dependent economy.
Recycling Matters II challenges conventional perceptions of value and utility by repositioning waste as a site of memory, resilience, and renewal.
Through the convergence of forms, the show presents aesthetic assemblages and installations that reflect Nigeria’s culture of consumption and environmental pollution, while also advocating for sustainable environmental awareness and responsible material culture.
To deepen the interrogation, Alexis Galleries, organisers of the show, is featuring new works by four residency artists—Konboye Ebipade Eugene, Seye Morakinyo, Aliya Diseotu Victor and Ibrahim Afegbua—who employ innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to reclaiming found materials.
In her curatorial statement, Founder, Alexis Galleries, Patty Chidiac Mastrogianni, said: “Through sculpture, assemblage, and installation, the artists transform everyday waste into expressive forms that challenge conventional notions of value, while addressing environmental pollution and sustainability.”
According to the lady, “Recycling Matters II invites viewers to reconsider waste as a resource for creative renewal and to reflect on the role of art in fostering environmental awareness and responsible material culture in Nigeria.”
She said, “in a society paralysed by waste and consumption, this exhibition motivates viewers to take proactive, responsive efforts towards their immediate environment and society.”
Lending his voice, Uche Obasi, who is curating the show, said it is a social intervention on the issues of waste, utility, and extended meanings within contemporary society. He added, “this exhibition recontextualizes waste as a re-inventive material for reclamation , offering critical commentary on pollution and environmental management while nurturing a culture of sustainability in Nigeria.”
The show engages viewers with artistic processes of reclamation and reinvention, revealing how everyday found objects can be reconnected to notions of utility, grace, and contextual meaning.
“Nigeria is widely characterised by patterns of excessive consumption and rapid disposal, reflecting the socio-economic realities of one of Africa’s largest, import-dependent economies.
Recycling Matters II responds to these conditions by exploring waste through a wide range of found materials, including discarded rubber, scrap metal, and fabric,” Obasi said.
He revealed that the artists bring together interdisciplinary artists whose practices employ diverse and innovative approaches to the idea of waste and utility.
“Drawing from discarded rubber, fabric remnants, scrap metal, and binding wires, the artists engage waste as both medium and message. These materials—often overlooked or abandoned—are reclaimed and reassembled into sculptural and mixed-media works that reflect the realities of consumption, labour, and survival within Nigeria’s urban landscape,” he retorted.
According to Obasi, “through processes of accumulation, binding, layering, and welding, industrial and domestic waste is transformed into expressive visual narratives. These artists practices aims to blur the boundaries between sculpture, assemblage, and installation, revealing the poetic forms and meanings embedded in everyday used materials.”
Konboyeis a visionary Nigerian artist who sees tales of resilience in discarded footwear, breathing new life and transforming each pair into a testament of human experience. He graduated with a distinction in painting from Auchi Polytechnic.
His innovative approach to art and eco-awareness has been featured as an inspiring story of turning waste into art by Reuters and BBC, serving as a platform of inspiration for the new generation of sustainable artists.
His childhood experience merged with formal training as he started exploring and experimenting with various unconventional materials before settling for footwear, which he considers very symbolic and held together through a very meticulous and meditative stitching pattern that represents a connection between old and new, highlighting the important role they play in our everyday life. In 2019, Konboye participated in a residency with OYASAF.
He has participated in workshops, art talks, and exhibitions in Argentina, Italy, Ghana, and Nigeria.
Morakinyois a mixed media artist born in the late 70s. He acquired his artistic training from the prestigious Auchi Polytechnic with distinction in 2005. He began his professional career in 2007, immediately after completing his National Youth Service Corps.
Within this period, he has participated in several art exhibitions and had a solo exhibition to his credit in 2019. As an artist, Morakinyo takes pleasure in experimenting with fabrics and paper, mostly discarded ones, for artistic inclusivity. The process encompasses cutting, layering, and even moulding of those materials to achieve depth, texture, and a deliberate deviation from the conventional. His curiosity is to upcycle the downcycled, as this elevates the potentials in the environment.
Afegbua, having had his early education in Kaduna North Council of Kaduna State where he was born, later attended Auchi Polytechnic, where he specialised in sculpture. His interest in cultural, traditional, and historical themes is informed by his royal background, where hairstyles, adornment, and fashion play significant roles.
He grew up admiring his stepmother, who was a hairstylist, as she beautified and transformed her customers’ faces with intricate and neat traditional hairstyles. He would watch her make various hairstyles for different women from different environments, and this would later serve as the crux of his art practice.
Hairstyles made with rubber and threads particularly tickled his fancy.
He would watch and marvel at the repeated movements of his stepmother’s hand and the resulting patterns of the thread. The flow and rhythm of the rubber and thread led him to search for a medium that would give him the exact outcome in his work.
He therefore settled for binding wires, which he rolls and turns in circular or diagonal flow to delineate subjects that interest him. He is now a multimedia artist, whose body of work is majorly motivated and inspired by cultural nuances as well as reflections of his thoughts.
His creative direction pulls toward women in frontal, profile, and back view, with emphasis on the dexterity and beauty of their hairstyles. The cultural emblems and authority of his Benin background are also visible in his works as an offshoot of his royal lineage.
Ibrahim is a full-time professional sculptor and a member of the Society of Nigerian Artists, who has participated in a number of group exhibitions in Nigeria and Belgium. He was the overall winner of the Life in My City Art Competition (LIMCAF) in 2017 and a beneficiary of a paid trip to the Art Biennale Dakar, Senegal, sponsored by El Anastui in 2018.
Victor is a practicing Nigerian sculptor, precisely from Okpokunou town of Burutu Council of Delta State.Born on January 11, 1996, he got his Ordinary National Diploma at the Benue State Polytechnic, Ugbokolo, and his HND at the Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State, as the best HND graduating student in the sculpture department.
As a result, he was also nominated for a six-week residency program with OYASAF (Lagos), the largest private art collection in Nigeria, founded in 2007 by Prince Yemisi Shyllon, who also has some of his works today.
Victor has also experienced art workshops and exhibitions like the ‘Made in Nigeria Masterclass’ GIZ Benin City, Life in My City Art Festival, Onus Morgan Art Competition, etc. Victor has also visited a few neighboring African countries, all for the work of art practice as an experience, which gave him the platform to connect and work with Nigerian artist Jonathan Imafidor on his three-piece, 25ft tall monumental sculpture project in Ibadan, Nigeria.
His professional art medium is sheet metal, and his works are inspired by human and animal anatomy in intricacies and his rich cultural heritage (The Ijaw artistry of its tradition), all for the purpose of beauty, eco-friendliness, and for history reserve. The artist is currently based and practicing in Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State, Nigeria.
