The Rele Arts Foundation proudly presents the 11th edition of the Young Contemporaries programme. This exhibition features works from three emerging artists who developed their practices through the Foundation’s residency in Ekiti State. Their works explore memory, healing, and cultural inheritance, reflecting on how identity is shaped by absence, responsibility, and tradition.
Gideon Okoro’s oil paintings emerge from a deeply personal period of illness and loss, capturing moments of self-reflection and emotional struggle. Through abstract and surreal compositions, he reimagines nights of solitude, confronting fear and uncertainty, using painting to process and recover from trauma. Tumininu Gbebire traces the transmission of trade, culture, and tradition across generations, documenting the women of Balogun Market whose labour sustains Yoruba fashion and owàmbẹ ̀ culture. Her reconstructed archival paintings incorporate inscriptions, dates, and signs of decay, preserving untold stories while acknowledging the passage of time and ancestral legacies. Tobiloba Fasalejo reflects on memory, absence, and early responsibility through intimate figurative paintings rooted in childhood.