Nigeria Imaginary: Homecoming addresses the question of what defines national culture and how it is produced. This landmark exhibition, taking place in multiple spaces across the MOWAA Campus, positions Nigeria not as a single, fixed monolith but as a place of shifting imaginaries — a space where history, memory and identity intersect. By unsettling inherited narratives, the artists and their respective works invite audiences to see national identity as a process of continual reinvention and collective imagining. 

This exhibition brings together an intergenerational group of ten artists whose practices span painting, sculpture, installation, film, and text. For some, Nigeria Imaginary: Homecoming marks their debut showing in the country; for others, it is a long-awaited return after many years.

Nigeria Imaginary first debuted at the 60th International Venice Biennale in 2024 as the second-ever Nigeria Pavilion. Expanded in scope from its Venice iteration with four new artists, the homecoming of the exhibition stages a direct encounter with its intended audience, where questions of nationhood are not abstract but lived, contested and urgent. 

Curated by Aindrea Emelife, Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at MOWAA. 

Kelani Abass (b. 1979, Abeokuta, Nigeria)
Tunji Adeniyi-Jones (b. 1992, London, UK)
Ndidi Dike
Isaac Emokpae (b. 1977, Lagos, Nigeria)
Modupeola Fadugba (b. 1985, Lomé, Togo)
NgoziOmeje Ezema (b. 1979, Enugu, Nigeria)
Onyeka Igwe (b. 1986, London, UK)
Abraham Onoriode Oghobase (b. 1979 in Lagos, Nigeria)
Precious Okoyomon (b. 1993, London, UK)
Toyin Ojih Odutola (b. 1985, Ife, Nigeria)
Yinka Shonibare (b. 1962, London, UK)

Aindrea Emelife

Adeyosola Adeniran

Kelani Abass
Tunji Adeniyi-Jones
Ndidi Dike
Isaac Erhabor Emokpae
Ngozi-Omeje Ezema
Modupeola Fadugba
Onyeka Igwe
Toyin Ojih Odutola
Abraham Oghobase
Precious Okoyomon
Yinka Shonibare

Sophie Drewett

Glenn DeRoche

A.M. Stockholm