For veteran Nigerian sculptor, painter and mixed media artist Nse Abasi Inyang, materials that have lost their original purpose become carriers of history. Old objects, fragments and found materials are not waste; they are archives waiting for another voice. He comes up with a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Club on Victoria Island of Lagos entitled “Enduring Creativity.”

Words Ireho Aito | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Photograph and images courtesy Nse Abasi Inyang

Nse Abasi Inyang  returns with “Enduring Creativity”, transforming forgotten objects into stories of memory, movement and human resilience.

Inside the quiet conversations of an artist’s studio, nothing is ever truly abandoned.

A discarded object may have lost its first identity, but in the hands of Nse Abasi Inyang, it begins another life. Metal fragments, found materials, forgotten forms and everyday objects become a language that speaks about people, places, history and survival.

For more than four decades, Inyang has built a practice around transformation. He does not simply create sculptures; he rescues memories hidden inside materials.

Now, at 67, the renowned sculptor, painter and mixed media artist returns to the exhibition space with “Enduring Creativity”, a major presentation of works that reflects a lifetime of curiosity, experimentation and commitment to the possibilities of art.

The exhibition opens today, Tuesday, June 23, 2026, at the prestigious Metropolitan Club, 15 Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, and runs until Sunday, June 28, 2026. Visitors can experience the exhibition daily from 10:00am to 4:00pm.

Presented by Adeline Gallery, founded in 2020 to promote African art through national and international exhibitions and collections, the exhibition positions Inyang’s works as a conversation between the past and the present.

According to the founder of Adeline Gallery, Dele Awosika, Inyang’s exhibition explores the emotional and historical life of discarded materials.

“His exhibition presents a sustained inquiry into how discarded things remember us and how precision can translate that remembering into form. Nse Abasi Inyang gathers objects past their usefulness and through exacting mechanical logic and sensitive material practice, composes works that are at once elegy and apparatus.”

For Awosika, every work becomes a layered artefact that is a meeting point where wear becomes narrative, surplus becomes possibility and repair becomes a creative philosophy.

Born in 1959, Nse Abasi Inyang’s journey began in Lagos, a city whose rhythm, contradictions and human stories continue to influence his artistic vision. He attended Saint Gregory’s College, Lagos, before moving to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he graduated in 1984.

His artistic foundation was shaped within the Nigerian modern art movement, including the influence of masters such as Bruce Onobrakpeya, while his own voice developed through sculpture, painting and experimental mixed media.

Beyond the studio, Inyang has been deeply connected to art education. He was a lecturer at Lagos State Polytechnic, a visiting lecturer at the University of Lagos and Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. He is also a member of the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA).

His artistic career has produced significant public works, including the Sacred Heart Church Badagry commission in 1979, the Grail Land Mural Painting at Iju in 1986, the Reception Wall Engraving at Gingiya Five Star Hotel, Sokoto, and the life-size sculptural work representing the Legal Profession Insignia at Taraba State High Court.

But beyond commissions and recognition, the heart of Inyang’s practice remains exploration.

“As a sculptor, painter and mixed media exponent, the passion and resolve to continually explore techniques and substrates to harmonise my creative expressions and the allure of dexterity is boundless,” he says.

“Synergy helps me create my wire frame and the visual appeal from discarded or found objects to build strong themes.”

That philosophy is visible throughout “Enduring Creativity.”

The exhibition brings together works spanning different periods of his career, revealing an artist constantly investigating material and meaning.

Among the works presented are “Idumota” (2019), a thermoplastic work inspired by urban memory; “Prayer is the Key but Faith Unlocks the Door” (2016); “The Visionaries” (2022); and “Rally” (2016).

One of the defining works in the exhibition is “My Bank” (2002–2024) the piece that represents a long artistic conversation, developed across years. It is almost a journey within itself, showing how ideas mature, evolve and continue to live.

The exhibition also features “Dunamis” (2026) done in Mahogany, “Praise” (2024) in marble stone, “Our Dialect” (2026) in wood, “The Bull Head” (1998) in marble stone, “Symphony” (2025) in mixed media, and “Rhythm Series” (2026).

Inyang’s ability to draw meaning from society is evident in “Agbepo” (2026), a mixed media work inspired by the hired traditional sanitation workers who once moved through communities, especially at night, carrying waste from homes without proper toilet facilities.

The work is not only about a profession, it is about memory. It records a disappearing social reality.

His relationship with Lagos also continues through “Ojuelegba Before Now” (2026), a linoleum engraving original. The work captures his curiosity about documenting a place that has become a cultural symbol.

Ojuelegba has carried many stories from different artists and also musicians. We still continue to relish Ojuelegba memories from the Afrobeat narratives of Fela Anikulapo Kuti in the 1970s to the global musical identity created through Dayo Balogun  – Wizkid’s celebrated song years later. Inyang approaches it from another direction: through the eyes of a visual historian.

Among the works that reveal the emotional depth of his practice is “Climbing Dreams”, a fiberglass sculpture that caught the attention of Professor Adesoji Adesugba.

Reflecting on the work, Adesugba writes:

“In this striking three and a half foot fiberglass sculpture, the artist captures a moment of aspiration that feels at once local and universal. A lone figure clings to the trunk of a palm tree, muscles taut with effort while at the base rests a simple bicycle, the silent witness to an act of perseverance.”

That image reflects much of Inyang’s own journey, which is a lifetime of climbing, searching and creating.

Before this exhibition, his artistic path included solo exhibitions such as “Beyond Borders” at the French Cultural Center and “Springs of Tradition” at the National Museum, Onikan, Lagos.

With “Enduring Creativity”, Nse Abasi Inyang continues a lifelong dialogue with materials, allowing forgotten fragments of everyday existence to enter the language of art. His works are not simply assembled objects but are records of human interaction, time and transformation where discarded surfaces become witnesses and old materials find new expressions.

After decades of creating, teaching and observing society through the eyes of an artist, Inyang’s practice remains rooted in one enduring belief: that everything carries a story, waiting for the right hands to reveal it.

“Enduring Creativity” a solo exhibition by Nse Abasi Inyang opens 23rd June 2026 at the Metropolitan Club, Victoria Island. It runs till 28th of June 2026.

iBAND Magazine, Celebrating Visual Arts from the Original.
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