Abuja, Nigeria — 18 to 26 April 2026
A new visual narrative of Nigeria’s capital is about to unfold—one that moves beyond the familiar surfaces of architecture and planning to reveal the deeper, more complex realities of the city and the people who shape it.
ICONIC ABUJA Multimedia exhibition is billed to open at Thought Pyramid Art Centre, Wuse from 18 to 26 April.
Iconic Abuja is a major contemporary art exhibition led by photographer and visual storyteller Bolaji Alonge, in collaboration with German photographer Katharina Sasse and 13 Nigerian artists working across photography, painting, and mixed media. Sasse’s participation brings an important international dimension to the project, reflecting a cross-cultural dialogue that resonates strongly with Abuja’s own global character.
The project is made possible with the support of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Abuja, and is hosted by Thought Pyramid Art Centre, whose continued commitment to contemporary African art provides an essential platform for this exchange.
Conceived in 1976 as a purpose-built capital—an ambitious symbol of neutrality, unity, and national aspiration—Abuja has long been understood through the language of structure: its master plan, its wide boulevards, its monumental landmarks. Yet, as this exhibition makes clear, the city cannot be reduced to its design. It is continuously redefined by those who move through it, inhabit it, and negotiate its possibilities and pressures on a daily basis.
ICONIC ABUJA approaches the city not as a fixed identity, but as an evolving condition. Through a constellation of artistic perspectives, it reveals a place where ambition and uncertainty coexist, where power and precarity intersect, and where everyday life quietly reshapes the meaning of the capital.
The participating artists—Bolaji Alonge, John Ali, Ahmed Michael, Aisha Mbaya, Mustapha Musa, Dan Ogbogu, Yemi Olapo, Olaosun Oluwapelumi, Babajide Olusanya, Oluwaseun Otokiti, Austin Orakwelu, Katharina Sasse, Olanrewaju Shittu, Moses Sodipo, and Christabel Uchechi—bring together a wide range of practices and perspectives, each engaging with Abuja through distinct thematic and visual approaches.
Download our Iconic Abuja catalogue here.
At the centre of the project, Bolaji Alonge’s practice continues to expand the visual language through which Nigerian cities are understood. Known for his platform Eyes of a Lagos Boy, Alonge’s work combines documentary precision with narrative depth, creating images that are both archival and immediate. Through projects such as ICONIC LAGOS and now ICONIC ABUJA, he positions photography as a tool for reimagining urban identity from an African perspective—one that foregrounds lived experience, memory, and cultural nuance. Building on the momentum of ICONIC LAGOS at (Didi Museum, 2022), Brighton Fringe Art Festival, UK 2023, Scarborough Fair, UK 2025, the exhibition shifts its focus toward a distinctly different urban narrative this time.
This sensibility is captured with clarity in the work of photographer Christabel Uchechi, whose reflection that “Abuja is not the structures… it is the people” reframes the entire exhibition. In her view, it is the often-unseen individuals—those who “give it meaning without trying to be seen”—who transform space into lived reality.
This sensibility is further echoed in the work of German photographer Katharina Sasse, whose practice is grounded in observing the quiet, often overlooked moments that define a place. Reflecting on her experience of the city, she notes that “Abuja doesn’t reveal itself all at once.
It lives in moments—in gestures, in encounters, in the rhythm of everyday life. My work is about holding on to those fleeting fragments, because that’s where the true character of a city exists.” Her perspective brings an important layer to the exhibition, offering a nuanced, attentive reading of Abuja that complements and deepens the broader narrative.
Across the exhibition, this attention to lived experience unfolds in multiple directions. Painter Yemi Olapo (Zoid) explores the psychological complexity of survival in contemporary urban life, where, as he notes, success demands the simultaneous performance of multiple identities. His work reflects a society in which individuals must navigate between formal systems and informal realities, balancing institutional knowledge with street intelligence in order to endure and progress.
In a different register, Moses Sodipo’s The Golden Hustle offers a layered narrative of Abuja as a city defined by both promise and pressure. Through the image of a young street vendor, framed by symbols of economic instability and collective labour, Sodipo constructs a portrait of resilience that is at once deeply personal and unmistakably political, invoking the enduring presence of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti as a figure of cultural consciousness and resistance.
For painter John Ali, the focus turns inward, toward the fragile space between innocence and experience, where identity is shaped by forces that often remain unseen. His figurative works, centred on the quiet intensity of children’s gazes, evoke resilience without sentimentality.
Photographer, Dan Ogbogu captures the subcultures that animate the city’s margins, from skateboarding through traffic in the central business district to the underground creative scenes that challenge conventional narratives of urban order. His work reveals Abuja not as static, but as unexpectedly dynamic and subversive.
In Mustapha Musa’s Posh City, the sleek movement of a Porsche through Abuja’s landmarks becomes a meditation on aspiration, status, and the symbolic power of visibility within a city built on dreams of success.
Similarly, Olaosun Oluwapelumi presents the capital as both a place and a responsibility, where the collective identity of the nation is carried by its people. Anchored by iconic landmarks such as Zuma Rock and the National Mosque, her work reflects the coexistence of belief systems and the weight of representation embedded in the capital’s image.
Themes of resilience and endurance recur across the exhibition. In the paintings of Austin Orakwelu, individual stories—such as that of a young woman overcoming physical limitations or a boy striving for education—become broader reflections on perseverance and hope in the face of structural challenges.
Photographers Oluwaseun Otokiti and Olanrewaju Shittu explore movement and strength in quieter, more reflective terms, capturing moments that speak to patience, transition, and the enduring resilience of individuals navigating their environments.
Meanwhile, Babajide Olusanya’s documentation of Fulani settlements at the edge of the city introduces a critical perspective on mobility, tradition, and the layered geographies that coexist within and around Abuja.
Through her exploration of shadow and form, Aisha Mbaya strips away visual excess to reveal what she describes as the “raw architecture of the soul,” while Ahmad Michael, working with ballpoint pen, interrogates masculinity, vulnerability, and transformation, positioning emotional depth as a site of strength rather than weakness.
Beyond the exhibition itself, ICONIC ABUJA is equally invested in building connections and expanding access. A programme of public activities—including a masterclass on visual storytelling scheduled for Thursday, 23 April 2026, and a children’s creative workshop, Kids Play, taking place on Saturday, 25 April 2026—underscores its commitment to mentorship, exchange, and the cultivation of future creative voices. At the same time, the decision to offer works at accessible price points reflects a deliberate effort to open up contemporary art to a broader audience.
At a moment when global visual culture continues to privilege certain cities as recognisable icons, ICONIC ABUJA proposes a necessary shift in perspective. Rather than presenting Abuja as a finished symbol, it reveals it as a city in process—layered, contradictory, and alive with stories that demand to be seen and understood on their own terms.
Exhibition Details
📍 Venue: Thought Pyramid Art Centre
📅 Dates: 18–26 April 2026
🕙 Opening hours: 10am–6pm (Sunday: 12noon–6pm)
Special Events
• Visual Storytelling Masterclass – Thursday, 23 April 2026
• Kids Play (Children’s Creative Workshop) – Saturday, 25 April 2026
Media Contact
Bolaji Alonge
+234 906 883 6078
bolaji.alonge@eyesofalagosboy.com
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