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Curator's Note

A ring of white light, one eye flaring like a star, an ochre robe over a bare shoulder. Dayo paints Christ as a young African man with a fu…

Curator's Note

Toni Kuyinu's gold usually crowns kings and queens. Here it rings the closed eye of a girl holding a single white feather to her face. It i…

Curator's Note

The power here is in the angle: she is turned away from us, looking forward. Then you find the map of Africa inked on her neck, and the por…

Curator's Note

Her eyes are closed, and that changes everything. She is not surveying a court; she is somewhere inward, chin lifted, a queen with no need …

Curator's Note

Of Toni Kuyinu's three royals, only the king keeps his eyes open, and he wears round wire glasses. A thoroughly modern young man, crowned w…

Curator's Note

The centrepiece of Toni Kuyinu's royal trio, and the only face that meets us head-on, yet his eyes are closed. Nothing is being claimed or …

Curator's Note

Awẹlẹwà, the slender, beautiful one, carries what Funmilayo Tejumola calls the hope of an African renaissance. Under a gold-beaded fringe h…

Curator's Note

The subject is the child. Godwin Edet Munam's masked ancestors sit with their backs to a crowned infant, guarding it, praying for it and fe…

Curator's Note

The molue at the front of this picture has mostly left Lagos roads, which is exactly why it belongs here. Anth Ezeokoye parks the old Merce…

Curator's Note

Dayo made his old man for the elders he grew up around, the quiet ones who have seen a lot and carry it with dignity. White beard against a…

Curator's Note

Seen from far above, a few tiny people cross a field of flowing black lines towards a pool on a raised white disc. Each trails a long shado…

Curator's Note

For Yeko, the mask is where a people and their gods meet. Source draws a face in profile built entirely from pattern, cowries, eyes and wav…