Culmination: Linking Then and Now, the latest exhibition by renowned Nigerian sculptor and art educator, Dr Adeola Balogun, opened on Sunday, November 1, 2026, at the prestigious Metropolitan Club, Victoria Island, Lagos. Organised in partnership with Adeline Gallery, the exhibition brought together art lovers, collectors, academics and friends of the artist for an afternoon of artistic appreciation, recollections and reflections on the place of history in shaping contemporary society.
Words Ireho Aito | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Photographs courtesy Dr. Adeola Balogun
“This is my protégé!” exclaimed Prince Yemisi Shyllon, one of Nigeria’s foremost art collectors, as he spoke about his longstanding relationship with Adeola Balogun at the opening reception of Adeola Balogun’s latest exhibition. It was a heartfelt declaration from a man who has followed the sculptor’s journey for more than three decades, dating back to his early years as an assistant lecturer at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. His recollections provided one of the most memorable moments of the afternoon, taking guests back to the beginning of a relationship built on artistic appreciation, trust and mutual respect.
“I met Adeola Balogun when he was just 29 years old,” Prince Shyllon recalled. He explained that he had been invited to chair a departmental exhibition at Yaba College of Technology. Among the works displayed, five immediately caught his attention, and he bought all of them. His curiosity, however, went beyond the purchase. He asked the organisers to introduce him to the artist responsible for the works. When a young and naive Adeola Balogun was eventually presented, he could hardly believe what he was told.
“You mean you did this?” he recalled asking, as the audience responded with applause.
That encounter marked the beginning of a relationship that has endured for more than 30 years. Prince Shyllon spoke warmly about the sculptor’s character, stressing the importance of artists maintaining relationships with their collectors rather than simply making a sale and moving on.
“I must confess to everyone here, and it is not arrogance. Adeola Balogun is the only artist who can drag me out of my house to attend exhibitions,” he said, adding that he hardly attended exhibitions anymore until Balogun personally visited him to extend an invitation to this particular one.
His account was more than an endorsement of the artist. It was a collector’s testimony to a creative journey he had witnessed from its early beginnings. He also mentioned some of Balogun’s notable public commissions, including his monumental work Attaining Greatness, a 20-foot sculpture donated to the University of Ibadan, his bronze work at the Faculty of Law and the 12-foot Obafemi Awolowo sculpture. He further recalled the artist’s work depicting Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, created with discarded tyres in Ado-Ekiti, and a commission appreciated by the Namibian Ambassador.
For Prince Shyllon, the achievements of artists such as Balogun should encourage Nigerians to take art more seriously, both as a cultural asset and an investment opportunity.
“One area for storing wealth is art,” he told the gathering, encouraging people to enjoy the pleasure, glamour and wealth-creation opportunities that come with collecting. He also advised collectors to buy art based on its value and urged Nigerians to support their artists, describing them as a wealth of the nation.
There was something particularly fitting about the choice of venue for Culmination: Linking Then and Now. The Metropolitan Club shares its immediate neighbourhood with the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), an institution concerned with international relations, policy research and Nigeria’s place in the comity of nations. In its own artistic language, Balogun’s exhibition seemed to engage a similar question: how do we understand our past, preserve its lessons and translate them into possibilities for the future?
The exhibition’s theme brought these thoughts together, suggesting that our history should not remain a collection of memories but should inform the decisions, policies and aspirations that shape our national development. It was a moment of camaraderie and reflection, with the audience engaging not only with the works but also with the wider conversations they provoked.
For an artist whose practice has consistently explored history, identity, materials and social consciousness, the exhibition was another opportunity to bring these conversations into the public space.
In Culmination, Balogun brings together ancestral lineage, social consciousness, Yoruba cosmology and the digital frontier. Drawing from images of his earlier sculptures and Gelede masks, he introduces the intricate geometry of electronic circuit boards and conductive track lines into his sculptures and mixed-media paintings.
According to the artist, these technological patterns are not simply aesthetic choices. They function as metaphors for Ila, the traditional Yoruba facial marks and scarification associated with cultural identity and prominently represented in Gelede masks. By placing these visual languages alongside one another, he invites viewers to reconsider how cultural symbols can acquire new meanings in a technologically changing world.
It is an interesting way of connecting two seemingly distant worlds. What was once marked on the human face as an expression of identity and belonging is reimagined through the language of electronic circuitry. The familiar is given another life, while the past is brought into conversation with the present.
Among the works presented were The Ultimate Spectacle: The Link Between Then and Now, Mansa Musa Re-envisioned, Queen Nefertiti Re-envisioned, Oloolu Re-envisioned, The Young Flutist Re-envisioned, The Agidigbo Rhythm Re-envisioned, The Queen and the Burden of Royalty, The Mirage Called Time, Entangled II, Rhythm in the Air and Pillar of Thorns and Roses, executed in steel and acrylic.
Other intriguing titles included AI: The Genie is on the Loose, Emotional Outburst, Red Scarf: Who Cares About the Red Handkerchief, We Are Patching It and We Dey Manage – God Dey Ooo!
The titles alone suggest an artist equally interested in the serious questions of history and the everyday experiences, humour, anxieties and contradictions of contemporary Nigerian life. From the weight of royalty and the memory of African civilisations to artificial intelligence and the familiar Nigerian expression of managing difficult circumstances, Balogun moves comfortably between different territories of thought.
Some of the mixed-media works, as the artist revealed, had their beginnings nearly 30 years ago. This detail adds another dimension to the exhibition. Culmination is not simply a collection of recent experiments; it is also a reflection on ideas that have travelled with the artist over several decades, finding new forms and possibilities along the way.
For Dele Awosika, founder of Adeline Gallery, the exhibition was another opportunity to celebrate an artist whose practice continues to expand the possibilities of contemporary Nigerian art. The gathering was warmly received, with Awosika ensuring that guests enjoyed the hospitality of the occasion while engaging with the works on display.
Balogun, in his response, expressed his gratitude to Prince Shyllon, acknowledging the collector’s longstanding encouragement and support. He recalled how their relationship had developed over the years, including a memorable visit to Prince Shyllon’s garden in 1995.
The artist also reflected on his own journey of exploration and experimentation, explaining that these have remained central to his practice for many years.
It is perhaps this willingness to keep exploring that makes Culmination particularly interesting. Balogun is not merely revisiting familiar subjects or repeating established techniques. He is taking images, materials and ideas from different periods of his artistic journey and allowing them to meet in new ways.
His interest in electronic circuitry, for instance, opens a conversation about technology that goes beyond its practical application. In his hands, the circuit board becomes a cultural metaphor, connecting the markings of the past with the networks and systems that define contemporary existence.
For an artist who has spent decades working with metal, discarded materials and unconventional forms, this latest body of work represents another chapter in an ongoing conversation between invention and identity.
Culmination: Linking Then and Now leaves its audience with an important thought: the past should not be preserved simply as something to look back upon. It must remain relevant to how we understand ourselves, respond to change and imagine the future.
At the Metropolitan Club on November 1, Adeola Balogun brought these questions together through a body of work that speaks to memory, technology, African heritage and the limitless possibilities of artistic experimentation.
It may seems that is the real meaning of culmination. Not necessarily an ending, but the coming together of experiences, ideas and creative possibilities, ready to begin another journey.
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