Yinka Olatunbosun
One evening, while walking through the streets of Isale Eko, Lagos, Nigerian artist Damola Adepoju found himself enveloped in sudden darkness as a power outage plunged the neighbourhood into silence. What might have been a moment of despair became instead a moment of revelation — a spark that would ignite his creative vision. Out of the blue, a beam of light from a neighbour’s torch cut through the gloom, illuminating the street. That simple, human gesture inspired Adepoju’s latest exhibition, Light: A Beacon from Isale Eko, a profound meditation on illumination as both metaphor and mission.
Born from this fleeting yet transformative experience, Light explores how a single act of illumination can pierce collective darkness — a metaphor for individual responsibility and the power to inspire change. Showing at Mydrim Gallery, the exhibition embodies resilience and hope amid the chaos and challenges of urban Lagos.
Through his signature mixed-media collages of clipped newsprint, Adepoju reconstructs Lagos’s skyline — its high-rise buildings emerging from layers of shared stories and public memory. These textured compositions invite viewers into a metaphysical conversation about identity, resilience, and the collective fabric of the city.
“This collection reflects my artistic journey since 2015, celebrating 50 years of life,” the artist said during a preview. “Thirty curated paintings trace my evolution and invite viewers to reflect on the human experience. Light symbolises a brighter tomorrow — a tribute to Lagos’s indomitable spirit.”
Comprising 30 works, the exhibition blends monochromatic and mixed-media pieces with bursts of colour in vibrant impasto scenes of markets and city life. Adepoju’s elevated perspectives capture the rhythm and geometry of Lagos’s architecture, distilling the city into visual music steeped in cultural memory.
By integrating newspaper clippings and collage into works like Helping Hand and Self-Motivation, Adepoju preserves fragments of civic discourse and everyday history.
“This technique is a deliberate strategy to embed public memory into my art,” he explained. “It allows me to weave personal identity and collective experience together, both materially and symbolically.”
Women, depicted as vessels of endurance and history in works such as Commercial Centre, The Thousand Lanterns, and Stock Keeper, embody the quiet resilience that sustains family and community.
Other paintings probe the spiritual dimension of light. In Master Key (2024), Seek and You Shall Find (2020), and Unspoken (2020), Adepoju channels light as divine revelation — a metaphor for enlightenment and communion with the Creator. These works echo philosophical traditions from Plato to Augustine, who viewed light as a bridge between the material and the transcendent.
Across three interwoven themes — knowledge, spirituality, and landscape — Adepoju’s art positions light as a universal symbol of hope, direction, and renewal: the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
His Eko Series — including Light, Golden Hour, Waves of Lights, Action Spot, Christmas Eve, Evening Light, and Isale Eko — captures the pulse, texture, and atmosphere of Lagos streets. Meanwhile, Waiting turns its gaze toward the education sector, confronting questions of governance, neglect, and accountability.
“This body of work captures the visual honesty of the streets,” Adepoju reflected. “The exaggerated light in my paintings isn’t a denial of shadow but a command of illumination — a metaphor for national consciousness aware of its flaws yet striving toward clarity.”
Collectively, these works form a visual manifesto — a testament to the belief that hope is not passive waiting but an active, deliberate choice.
“My goal,” Adepoju concludes, “is to inspire viewers to become light bearers in their own right. If each of us accepts that responsibility, we can collectively light up the world — finding our way forward, even in the darkest of times.”
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