Niyi Olagunju | Baga Nimba III

A new exhibition focused on Olagunju’s contemporary appropriation of the traditional Baga Nimba shoulder masks. Continuing his exploration of global trade in classical African art, and what he describes as the “commoditization of everything.”

Olagunju’s Baga Nimba is part of a series sculptures and drawings exploring one of the artist’s favorite African art forms, a headdress associated with the Baga, Nalu, and neighboring peoples in present-day Guinea. Locally, the headdress is known as d’mba,nimba, or yamban and symbolizes the figural apotheosis of maternity, sustenance (maternal and agricultural), and generational continuity. In addition to its status as a national icon of Guinea, the d’mba became one of the most coveted examples of African visual culture for collectors in Europe and the United States during the 20th century.

Olagunju’s contemporary re-imagining of the Masks examines the complex afterlives of African cultural objects within the global art market. Drawing on the traditional shoulder masks of the Baga people of Guinea, Olagunju reinterprets these culturally significant forms through a striking combination of found pieces and precious or industrial metals. The sculptures are vertically bisected, with one half transformed through materials such as gilded bronze, or chrome-plated aluminium, before being reconnected to the original wooden form.

The visual tension between wood and metal is central to the series. The natural, visibly worked surface of the wood evokes the object’s material and cultural history, while the polished metallic half introduces the language of luxury, rarity and manufactured value. Gold and chrome therefore function not simply as decorative finishes, but as critical devices: they draw attention to the mechanisms through which African objects have been removed from their original contexts and transformed into highly valued commodities within Western collecting and museum systems.