Yinka Olatunbosun
The quiet but enduring strength of Pa Yinka Adeyemi is one for the books. At 80, the elderly artist is staging a show-stopping comeback with Metamorphosis, a solo exhibition organised by Mind Masters Creative Gallery, Lagos. The two-week show, which opens on September 13 and runs till September 28 at Art Hotel, Oniru, Lagos, is not only a commemoration of a milestone birthday but also a celebration of a creative journey that has stretched over six decades, across continents and across forms.
Pa Adeyemi, who turned 80 on August 4, has been a towering figure in African art for more than six decades. A multi-talented creator, his artistic journey cuts across painting, carving, mosaic murals made with cowries and pottery sherds, as well as performance art. He once featured in Kongi’s Harvest, the celebrated play by Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka. All of these aspects of his creative life will be presented during the two-week commemorative exhibition.
At a press briefing in Lagos, Larry Segun-Lean, art collector and founder of Mind Masters, explained that the exhibition aims to relaunch Adeyemi into the media spotlight and celebrate his enduring legacy.
“He turned 80 on the 4th of August,” Segun-Lean said. “It is a commemorative exhibition to celebrate a global icon who has impacted the art space worldwide, not just in Africa. We want the world to know he is back home in Nigeria, where it all started. This is iconic, and it is too important to ignore.”
He added that the show will also serve to educate both African and global audiences about Adeyemi’s long career. “His works are quintessentially African. They tell our story in raw form, without embellishment. They remind us that Africa’s creative civilisation predates much of what the West claims to have pioneered.”
Segun-Lean, who has collected Adeyemi’s works for over 30 years, described him as “an artist par excellence” whose practice remains active.
Adeyemi himself offered insights into his lifelong dedication to art during a similar commemorative show recently held in Ibadan at Tunde Odunlade Gallery. “I tell stories with my work. I paint, I print, I work in batik and textiles. I draw inspiration from people, from places, from my travels to museums and galleries around the world. Metamorphosis is all of that put together many things in one. My interest is to let people know that Africa is great,” he said.
Curator Moses Ohiomokhare praised Adeyemi as a pioneer of the batik-on-rice-paper technique, a style that set him apart from his contemporaries with its bold geometric patterns, symbolic motifs, and vibrant colours particularly striking reds, yellows, and magentas. Each piece, Ohiomokhare explained, reflects Yoruba cosmology, exploring themes of fertility, prosperity, agriculture, protection, and sacred traditions like the Osun-Osogbo grove.
In the early 1980s, Adeyemi showcased his batik works at Quintessence Gallery alongside Osogbo leading lights such as Twins Seven Seven, Rufus Ogundele, and Adeku. He later took his art abroad, exhibiting in the United States with artists like Jimoh Buraimoh and Z.K. Oloruntoba.
Dr. Mudiare Onobrakpeya, described the exhibition, which is now ongoing, as more than a retrospective. “After decades abroad, Adeyemi’s return to the Lagos art scene is not merely a homecoming; it is a reawakening. His journey from Iragbiji to Osogbo, Lagos to the United States and back tells the story of an artist whose vision has only deepened with time and distance, and whose hand remains as sure and inspired as ever.
“This exhibition, “Metamorphosis” invites more than admiration, it calls for dialogue. A dialogue not just with the work, but with the imagination that shaped it. It reminds us that mastery is not a final point, but a lifelong process. It is forged through discipline, nurtured by tradition, tested by time, and refined in the crucible of reinvention.”
At 80, Yinka Adeyemi is still working, still telling stories, and still proving that art, like life, is a journey of endless metamorphosis.
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