At Kokopelli, A Conversation Across Generations 

 Yinka Olatunbosun

With a refreshing cocktail reception, bubbly guests and art connoisseurs, Kokopelli Gallery marked its fifth anniversary, celebrating half a decade of redefining the narrative of contemporary African art.

Since opening its doors, Kokopelli Gallery has built a reputation for challenging conventional gallery models. To commemorate the milestone, founder and curator Dare Herald unveiled a commemorative exhibition titled Epignosis I: Our Story First. Structured as a call and response, the exhibition draws on the African oral and musical tradition in which one voice speaks and another answers. In Epignosis I, the call comes from a solo presentation by lead artist Gbolahan Ayoola, while the response comprises five works, one by each of the participating artists in the inaugural Once Upon A Time (O.U.T.) Residency held in Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos.

“It is two generations placed in one room on the same terms, where the established voice and the emerging one are each altered by the presence of the other,” Herald explained.

The exhibition’s premise has a precedent. At the beginning of his career in the early 2000s, Gbolahan Ayoola exhibited alongside master artist Tola Wewe. More than two decades on, Ayoola has developed a practice rooted in anthropology and urban experience, translating cultural narratives into visually compelling forms. Working largely in acrylic, charcoal, lead and ink, the exhibition features works including Isipaya: The Revelation of Buried Identity I and II, What the Black Conceals I and II, Stratum of Self I and II, Pavement Beneath the Skin I and II, No Chain Is Visible I and II and Unearth Origins, among others.

The residency, which ran from August 24 to September 6, was built on the premise that Africa possesses abundant artistic talent but lacks sufficient infrastructure to project it. For emerging artists, such infrastructure encompasses access, mentorship and the space for their practices to flourish. The O.U.T. Residency lived up to its name, with the five artists — Victor Anachuna (Nigeria), Falhone Ogoun (Republic of Benin), Estifanos Gashaw (Ethiopia), Vurzie Kimnaton (Nigeria) and Putin Bempong (Ghana) — stepping outside the studio to feed their eyes and minds through studio visits and field research across historic sites on Lagos Island, the Brazilian Quarters and Badagry.

Back at the residence, they took part in facilitated sessions with mentors and established artists covering multiple aspects of artistic practice. The cohort thus became the founding OUTliers, laying the groundwork for well-researched works that articulate cross-cultural currents, post-colonial themes and cultural crystallisation. The result is the commemorative exhibition, sponsored by The Macallan, Qoray Mobility, Igiehon Museum Project and Escudo Rojo.

A case in point is Bempong, who draws on Akan folklore to create mixed-media paintings that explore inheritance, transformation and heritage. Drawing extensively from Ghanaian oral traditions, he reclaims the stories of Ananse, using the figure and its narratives to examine intelligence, survival and transformation while preserving collective memory.

Like Bempong, Gashaw’s storytelling is layered with personal experience and social reflection.

“I like to work in layers so that the viewers can take something out of every layer,” he explained during a guided tour of the exhibition. “My experience in Badagry and its history of slavery influenced this piece titled The System Won’t Let Us Be Friends. The story is not necessarily that of slavery. It is subject to different interpretations, but then it is about resistance.”

The embedded message in Gashaw’s work resonates with South Africa’s history of apartheid, just as it may evoke Berlin’s Cold War history and the era of the American Civil Rights Movement.

For Vurzie, the residency offered a unique opportunity to take a close-up look at Lagos. Through her lens, she peers into ordinary moments to tell extraordinary stories embodied in abandoned spaces, familiar streets, neighbourhoods and cultural celebrations. Shifting her perspective from her preoccupation with Northern Nigeria, where she hails from, she creates a collage of juxtaposed histories, assembling past and present to comment on the daily lives of Lagos residents. In The Threshold of Eko, she interrogates communal memory through a clean collage featuring the NEPA building, the Old Printing Press on Broad Street and remnants of colonial buildings on Lagos Island.

Drawing from her cultural heritage and a lineage of blacksmiths, Falhone raises socio-economic questions around ecology, the female condition and humanity’s relationship with the environment, alongside concerns of heritage, memory and transmission. These themes converge in her painting Game of Fate.

The Land Remembers is Anachuna’s statement painting, reclaiming the memory of Jaekel House in Ebute Metta. The historic two-storey colonial mansion, built in 1898, was named after Francis Jaekel OBE. By reimagining the building in paint, Anachuna reflects on identity and colonial heritage while reclaiming cultural memory.

In his remarks, Sadiq Ajibola Williams, the gallery’s in-house consulting curator, programme director for the O.U.T. Residency and gallery manager, reflected on the public reception of the works at the exhibition opening.

“It has been wonderful to work with the young artists who had to put their ego aside, absorb, listen and, with all humility, learn. It wasn’t easy selecting them from over 250 applications from across Africa. We believe we picked the right people. They have a voracious appetite for knowledge-seeking and are skilled at channelling everything learnt into their works. This experience has opened up a side of myself where I would love to continue this.”

By bringing two generations into dialogue through this celebratory exhibition, Kokopelli Gallery reaffirms the value of art education and mentorship alongside cultural conservation in artistic practice.