Collection: 'The Flowers on the Crown of the King' - Wole Lagunju

The Flowers on the Crown of the King

Wole Lagunju

05.02.25 - 08.03.25

In his eighth solo exhibition and second on the African continent, Wole Lagunju unveils ‘The Flowers on the Crown of the King’ opening next Wednesday at EBONY/CURATED in Cape Town. After a long association with the gallery, we are delighted to exhibit a series of new paintings by this celebrated Nigerian artist.

“Wole Lagunju debuts new works – eight large canvases that further establish his fascination with the Yoruba culture and his interest in critical conversations with other ideas and global contemporary art. Lagunju’s preoccupation with the global contemporary (GC), like other African diaspora artists, is personal, political, economic, and cultural. He seeks his personal place in the GC, the place of his culture, and the place of Africa in it, while not ignoring the multiple ideas and impulses that his encounters bring about. This search is markedly a tendency found in African artists practicing in western location and in other cultural terrains. In their quests, they also look at archives in their homelands and those that they encounter or intentionally seek in their diaspora locations to speak to their local and global experiences. The continuous individual dialogue with their dual, triple or multiple heritage centers them and stimulates their creativity. As many scholars have noted, African diaspora artists look both ways, their homelands and the diaspora of their habitation and in doing so they remain in constant dialogue with and oscillate between both spectrums.” - Professor Adérónké A. Adésànyà, James Madison University, USA

Lagunju was awarded The Northern Trust Prize in 2023, the Pollock Krasner Award in 2009 and the Philip L. Ravenhill Fellowship by UCLA in 2006. He currently lives in the United States of America, with works included in the public collections of the Denver Art Museum, St Louis Art Museum, The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, The Toledo Museum and the World Bank, amongst others.