In an era where art is increasingly called upon to interpret the complexity of African living, photographer, creative entrepreneur, and rising curator, Oluwabunmi Kushimo has staged a remarkable intervention in Lagos’s cultural landscape.
Her debut exhibition, Skin City: The Architecture of Us, unveiled at the UNDP Office in Ikoyi, does more than display art, it excavates the intimate geographies etched on the body, turning skin into a map of memory, resilience, and becoming.
The exhibition, produced under the umbrella of Grartly, Oluwabunmi’s emerging art-tech platform designed to give visibility and structure to African visual artists, brings together eight innovative creators across painting and photography.
Their works do not merely decorate a gallery; they interrogate it. They invite viewers to step beyond the surface and into the emotional “cities” people carry cities built on identity, silence, heritage, survival, and the quiet triumphs that rarely make the news.
For Oluwabunmi, the project is deeply personal.
“Art has always been the language of the unseen,” she explained. “So many African artists create worlds that never get the chance to breathe beyond their small studios.
Skin City is a reclaiming: a way of saying that our stories deserve structured visibility and global recognition.”
Across the exhibition room, bodies become landscapes: scars appear as roads; wrinkles, as rivers; gestures, as architectural lines that reveal the stories people seldom speak. This approach aligns with Oluwabunmi’s curatorial vision: to explore the body as a living archive.
The featured artists, Oluwabunmi Kushimo, David Kaydee Otaru, Shittu Qudus, Olumide Ogundele, Adebayo Jude, Blessing David, Sẹmo Adebayo, and Oluwatobiloba David, bring distinct cultural textures that grant the show its multilayered emotional resonance.
Some works examine gendered vulnerability. Others revisit the quiet griefs that Lagos hides beneath its noise. A few reflect the spiritual stillness that survives urban chaos. Together, they create an intricate portrait of African identity, tender yet fierce, fragmented yet whole.
What makes Skin City especially relevant for Nigeria’s contemporary art moment is its bridge between physical and digital access. Through Grartly, the exhibition marks the beginning of a wider vision: a structured, transparent art marketplace where African artists gain global reach, collectors discover curated works, and young artists find long-term support.
This exhibition arrives at a time when global demand for African art is rising sharply, yet local creators still face visibility barriers. Oluwabunmi’s dual model of curated exhibitions and digital art-tech innovation signals where the future of African art, commerce may be headed towards a system that is more inclusive, more intentional, and more globally competitive.
Skin City: The Architecture of Us is not simply an exhibition; it is a cultural statement. It stands at the intersection of Lagos’s restless energy and the quiet truths of its people and in guiding this vision, Oluwabunmi Kushimo positions herself not just as a photographer, but as a cultural architect shaping the next frontier of African visual storytelling.
