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Lola Ayisha Ogbara

@lolaogbara

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trickster. teacher. chaos. clay.
1/2 of @two___halves 🥥
Solo Exhibition: Spatial Poems at @massmoca

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We are excited to announce our participation in Minor Attractions, presenting Lola Ayisha Ogbara and Roland Knowlden Jr.

Working across assemblage, ceramics, photography, and film, Ogbara and Knowlden propose the hotel room as a site of desire, remembrance, and echoes of love lost.

Oct 13 - 17, 2026
The Newman Hotel
50 Newman Street, Fitzrovia, London WIT 3EB

Visit us in Room 113, sharing the room with @harlesdenhighstreet presenting @savannahlmarie

RSVP linked in bio 🖇️

Image 1:
Roland Knowlden Jr.,
𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘺 (𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘪), 2026
found and carved djembe, carved birch trunk, steel, cotton fabric
40 x 100 x 30 cm

Image 2:
Lola Ogbara
𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘺 𝘙𝘢𝘬𝘶 (𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦) 2024
Raku-fired ceramic stoneware
20 x 30 cm

DM or email Francine@talachicago.com for inquiries

@rolandknow @lolaogbara @minor.attractions taken in The Newman by @lolaogbara

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5 days ago

𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺…

My first solo museum presentation, 𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙣 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙… opens May 23 at @massmoca!!

I am spending time installing and building the exhibition alongside an incredibly capable, thoughtful, and talented team of people I’m deeply grateful for. To share this moment while exhibiting simultaneously with @ceciliavicuna and @samfresquez feels especially meaningful.

More soon as things come together. Hope to see you there on May 23.

🌀🌀🌀

𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙣 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙… is an exercise in care that explores Black movement, veneration, and sonic experimentation, presented through imagined geographies and naturally forming archives rooted in the artistic and cultural traditions of post-structuralism in Black American and African diasporic communities. With a conceptual practice standing at the intersection of non-Western epistemologies and bodily topographies, Ogbara explores the philosophical poetics of the scar as both a visual language of fugitivity and an imprint of resistance through material and compositional investigations.

𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙣 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙…
Curated by Jamillah Hinson in collaboration with Marissa Del Toro (@marissa_ofthebull)

Spatial Poems is a communal exhibition in three concurrent parts developed by CEI Fellow Marissa Del Toro in collaboration with guest curators Ninabah Winton and Jamillah Hinson, who aim to disrupt the art world’s usual curatorial structures. taken in MASS MoCA by @lolaogbara

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5 months ago

A little late, but *extremely* proud and happy to share that two works from my 𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙈𝙚 𝙆𝙣𝙤𝙩 series have been aqcuired by the Studio Museum of Harlem (@studiomuseum) for their permanent collection. It’s such a cool thing to be a part of a permanent human narrative. It’s also not lost on me that it gets to live within an archive that houses some of the most talented artists of color from the past half a century. This work gets to have the care and reverence it deserves for years to come, and for I am grateful. I want to extend thanks to the members of the acquisition committee who saw this necessary and to all of those of you who championed this work.

I was setting the intention for this in the Summer of 2024. Two years later this intention became a realization. I will never not be amazed at the power beholden unto me—as a visionary, a creator and a master manifestor. Forever in awe.

More to come 🌹 taken in Studio Museum in Harlem by @lolaogbara

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3 days ago

How do artists channel energy or spirit in their work, and find creative methods to express it in tangible form?

In the fourth episode of our “Unpacking: Fade” audio series, Adria Gunter, Assistant Curator, introduces three artists from “Fade”: Y. Malik Jalal (@ymalikjalal), Antonio Darden (@theantoniodarden), and Lola Ayisha Ogbara (@lolaogbara).

Each artist discusses how spirit informs their practice and process, drawing from personal family histories, image categorization systems, or West African indigenous map-making.

Dive into this episode, and others, exploring “Fade” on @bloombergconnects.

See the exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem, now through September 6, 2026.

“Unpacking: Fade” is produced with @soundmadepublic. by @lolaogbara

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2 months ago

There is less than a month left to view this epic exhibition at the @studiomuseum. 😱

Extending gratitude to all involved in making this a reality. 🙏🏾Couldn’t ask for a better experience. 💫

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“Fade” is organized by Adria Gunter (@a.n.gunter), Assistant Curator; Habiba Hopson (@hab_hop), former Senior Curatorial Assistant; Yelena Keller (@yelenasimone), Associate Curator; Jayson Overby Jr. (@jijjase), Assistant Curator; and Kiki Teshome, Curatorial Assistant. taken in Studio Museum in Harlem by @lolaogbara

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2 months ago

A part of any residency is enjoying the fruits of its surroundings😍. The experience I’ve had at @citedesartsparis is one that has challenged me in all the good ways. I’ve made friends, created, sweated, ate, sight-saw, shopped, and took up good sun. Cheers to an incredible Paris in July 🥂

Paris📍

Parks and recreation
Paris 📍

Lola in the park
Paris 📍

David Hammonds x Malick Sidibé
Paris 📍

David Hammonds x Malick Sidibé
Paris 📍

Henry Taylor
Paris 📍

Trouville-sur-Mer
France 📍

Trouville-sur-Mer
France 📍

Scene on the Seine River
Paris 📍

I’ve known rivers…
Paris 📍 taken in Paris Saint Germain by @lolaogbara

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2 months ago

New York is the most dirtiest, most expensive, loveliest, interestingly weird place I know. From the slowest escalator on earth and rats having lunch next you - to the robust art scene and amazing people that inhabit this place. It’s always a ki. by @lolaogbara

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5 months ago

An ongoing series of vessels inspired not only by my personal experience as a bearer of spirit/light/water, but by the poetics of bodily markings and the decorative aesthetic of the spirit vessel, or 𝙎𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙖 (containers holding the spirit and the asé of Orisha).

On view at @massmoca for my solo exhibition, 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥…

#BlackClay #textures taken in MASS MoCA by @lolaogbara

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3 months ago

“Complex notions of Blackness are exactly what the 17 artists of African and Afro-Latino descent in “Fade” together project, in a show that operates at a quieter metabolism than any of the previous iterations I’ve seen — one shared by the concurrent 2026 Whitney Biennial.”

—Holland Cotter

There’s a new review in town! “Fade” has been reviewed by Holland Cotter’s for @nytimes. Give it a read, link in bio! taken in Studio Museum in Harlem by @lolaogbara

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5 months ago

Now that I’ve had some time to process, I can finally say that I thoroughly enjoyed what opening weekend had to offer. From @massmoca’s whimsical Art Futures benefit to the opening of Spatial Poems where I am in GREAT company—I’m truly blessed to be supported by my loved ones, the museum’s awesome staff, and the curators who have taken such good care of me. I grow more and more impressed by this place each time I visit.

The exhibition is worth the trip, please do indulge✨

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📷 Jon Verney taken in MASS MoCA by @lolaogbara

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4 months ago

Being a part of this exhibition and amongst many artists who feel like fresh breaths of air is affirming in many ways. Feels good to have your light be seen and nurtured. Thank you to the brilliant minded curators at SMH. I’m looking forward to seeing this exhibition in person.

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✨FADE✨ opens to the public May 1st!

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The previous “F” shows, “Freestyle” (2001),
“Frequency” (2005-06), “Flow” (2008), Fore (2012-13), and “Fictions” (2017-18), have come to be known as landmark exhibitions in the recent history of contemporary art.

Featuring seventeen early-career artists who live and work across the United States, “Fade” reflects the concerns of a new generation. Working across disciplines, the artists in this exhibition embrace feeling, spirituality, and nonlinear conceptions of time.
Through sculptural and visual interventions that foreground ancestry, spaces of refuge, land as archive, grief, and the surreal, Fade locates the in-between as a space of resistance.

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Participating artists:

Turiya Adkins (@turiyadkins)
Harlan Bozeman (@harlanbozeman)
Kiah Celeste (@kiah.celeste)
Antonio Darden (@theantoniodarden)
Emmanuel Louisnord Desir (turboglitchy)
Jésus Hilario-Reyes (@morenxx_x)
Y. Malik Jalal (@ymalikjalal)
Amina Ross (@aminaontheinternet)
Lola Ayisha Ogbara (@lolaogbara)
Andina Marie Osorio (@andinamarieosorio)
Ute Petit (@swampbender)
Taj Poscé (@tajposce)
Coumba Samba (@savecoumba)
Shani Strand (@foxybrownfastcar)
Malaika Temba (@mvtemba)
Chiffon Thomas (@c.chronicles)
London Williams (@londonpierrewilliams) taken in Studio Museum in Harlem by @lolaogbara

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6 months ago

Still sitting with the feelings that last week brought. I’m currently settling in deep gratitude, quiet pride, and the kind of joy that lingers in your body. Honored to be part of such a major group exhibition at @studiomuseum. It’s a space that has supported, shaped, and uplifted so many of us. To share work in the lineage of the F-Show at this moment means more than I can fully articulate. I keep returning to the opening night, the conversations, the energy, the sense of being held. It felt like a pause in time, one I’m still carrying with me. Thank you to those who showed up to show support, you know who you are 🫶🏾.

The show runs May 1 – September 6. If you’re in Harlem this Summer, take your time with it. Fade deserves that and more.

✨ taken in Studio Museum in Harlem by @lolaogbara

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5 months ago