Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola | Museum Solo Exhibition

Nigerian-American artist Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola (b. 1991, Columbia, Mo.) presents recent works that repurpose everyday objects associated with Black hair to convey the intersection of commodities and their broader socio-political implications. In his most ambitious Camouflage painting to date, Akinbola stitches durags into a 48-foot-wide composition, invoking Modern painting tropes while critically underscoring gestural abstraction’s ubiquity. The Price of Oil, an installation of pomade cans on retail shelving, signifies the dynamic history of Black hair within the American economy, where abundance paradoxically connotes the celebratory, yet sterile commodification of culture. His newest sculpture of barber poles is a monument to barbershops – the earliest sites of Black commercial enterprises and civil rights organizing – recognizing their part in fostering Black political mobility and financial independence in an ever-resistant environment. Exemplifying Akinbola’s yearslong practice of mediating between sculpture and painting through material, Good Hair draws attention to the nuanced roles of everyday objects within Black life, individuation, and joy.

August 23, 2024