News Report | iBAND Magazine | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Photographs credit: Dotun Popoola

Nigerian sculptor and scrap-art innovator Dotun Popoola, has announced that celebrated Japanese-born artist Sayaka Ganz will join him in 2025 for a three-week residency programme at the Scrap Art Museum (@scrapartmuseum). The news, shared via Popoola’s social media platforms, marks a major milestone for Nigeria’s growing eco-art movement.

Popoola revealed that his connection with Ganz dates back two decades. “In 2005, I stumbled on one of Sayaka Ganz’s plastic sculptures online and saved several of her works on my laptop just to get inspired,” he wrote. Fourteen years later, in 2019, the two finally met in Qatar, an encounter he described as an instant meeting of minds. Their creative chemistry quickly blossomed into collaborations across several countries, strengthening their shared vision for art anchored in sustainability.

Now, in 2025, Popoola says he is “super excited” to welcome Ganz to Nigeria for a residency designed to inspire local artists and deepen the community’s engagement with recycled-material art.

Sayaka Ganz, known internationally for her dynamic “3D impressionism,” transforms discarded plastic and metal into fluid sculptures that capture animals and natural forces in mid-motion. Raised across Japan, Brazil, and Hong Kong, her multicultural background informs her sensitivity to movement, storytelling, and environmental consciousness.

Holding degrees in Fine Arts from Indiana University Bloomington and an MFA in 3D Studies from Bowling Green State University, Ganz has established herself as a powerful voice in contemporary eco-art. Her acclaimed touring exhibition, Reclaimed Creations, has been hosted by more than 20 museums across the United States and continues its run through 2027.

In 2026, Ganz will feature at the Venice Biennale in a collateral exhibition curated by the European Cultural Centre. Her centrepiece work, Nanami, is a seven-part whale sculpture, serves as a bold meditation on the human relationship with waste, nature, and wonder.

Popoola’s invitation brings her influential practice into direct dialogue with Nigeria’s thriving creative scene. For emerging artists, her residency promises cross-cultural exchange, technical exposure, and fresh perspectives on sustainability in art.

For Popoola, it is a full-circle moment: the artist who once inspired him from afar will now help shape and inspire an entire community.