In Abstracto, In Concreto: On Memory and Presence

Opening 16 May, In Abstracto, In Concreto: On Memory and Presence is a group exhibition curated by Brice Arsène Yonkeu that brings together contemporary practices by Luke Agada, Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Ludovic Nkoth, and Naila Opiangah. The exhibition expands both figuration and abstraction, positioning them as critical tools through which visibility, memory, and belonging can be reconsidered in the present.

Presenting works on paper and paintings, the exhibition proposes an encounter between visibility and erasure, between the surfaces of lived experience and the abstractions of memory. Rather than focusing on the body in its recognisable form, the exhibition asks how the body, sometimes present, sometimes dissolving, sometimes displaced, becomes a vessel for history, inheritance, and imagination.

“At the heart of these practices is a shared interrogation of how presence and absence are rendered visible. The works range from those that privilege opacity and dissolution, where forms blur, fragment, or withdraw into residues of memory, to those that stage dreamlike transitions and surrealist landscapes that mirror dislocation and shifting identity. Alongside these gestures of abstraction and withdrawal are practices that insist on the fullness of the body, affirming it as resplendent, grounded, and worthy of care. Rather than presenting a singular mode of figuration or abstraction, the exhibition unfolds as a spectrum of strategies.”

• Extract from curatorial text by Brice Arsène Yonkeu