Night Gallery is delighted to announce the representation of Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola. This partnership follows Akinbola’s 2021 debut exhibition at Night Gallery, entitled Market. He will present his second solo show at Night Gallery North in March 2023.
Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola responds to and updates the legacy of the readymade, placing sculptural practice in dialogue with traditions of abstract painting. Born in the United States to Nigerian parents and raised in the two countries, his work celebrates the distinct cultures that shape him both as an artist and an individual. The paintings in his ongoing Camouflage series are primarily composed of durags, a highly accessible material loaded with conceptual potential and cultural context. Stretched, sewn, and painted beyond immediate recognition, the durag transcends its typical connotations and provides the artist with an inroad to engage broader themes of identity, respectability, and the commodification of Black culture. Compositions vary in texture and hue, from subtle, monochromatic plains to electrically contrasted color fields. Akinbola is an artist who defies easy categorization, opting instead for the transformative and compelling us to do the same.
Night Gallery’s representation of Akinbola is in collaboration with Sean Kelly, New York, and Carbon 12, Dubai.
Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola (b. 1981, Columbia, MO) has had solo exhibitions at Sean Kelly, New York; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna; Carbon 12, Dubai; John Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan; and the Queens Museum, New York among others. His work has been included in group exhibitions at Hauser & Wirth, New York and Los Angeles; Pace Gallery, New York; and the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw. Akinbola lives and works in New York.