By Chris Onuoha
Affinity Gallery, based in Lagos has been intentionally consistent in bringing together, an assemblage of young, curious and creative minds in what one would describe as a collage of vibrant minds.
Since inception, the art house has tried to maintain that niche that singles unique creatives with wild, thought provoking and philosophically oriented renditions from artists across the globe.
In this special exhibition, titled: “Borders & Other Myths” curated by Laura Twagirayezu, Affinity showcased a group exhibition from 5 unique artists namely: Carine Mansan, Chigozie Obi, Cortney Herron, Ernest Amabibi, Hamed Maiye, and Myles Igwebuike.
The exhibition, officially opened on September 13, to run till October 10, 2026, showcases the practices of these five artists whose works examine the ways identity, memory, spirituality, and cultural knowledge are carried across generations, geographies, and lived experience.
Through painting, photography, and sculpture, the artists consider borders not as a fixed boundaries, and celebrates myths as a form of self-authorship, allowing histories, identities, and narratives to be reclaimed, reimagined, and transformed.
Ultimately, the exhibition proposes that what appears fixed may be temporary and what appears singular may contain multitudes, announcing that what appears to separate us may also reveal the depth of our interconnectedness, according to the curatorial statement.
It statement also, stressed that the border, like the myth, is not necessarily the end of the story, expressing that it is an invitation to reconsider who authored it, who inherited it, and what other stories might exist beyond it.
The exhibiting artists
Carine Mansan born in 1988, is an Ivorian-French visual artist whose figurative paintings explore identity, colonial histories, religious syncretism, and cultural hybridity.
Trained in drawing and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Montreal, Mansan has exhibited internationally, including at AKAA Paris, FNB Art Joburg, South Africa, the National Museum of Yaoundé, Cameroon and the Contemporary Museum of Adama Toungara in Abidjan. Her practice has been recognised with the 2022 Société Générale Discovery Young Talents Award, and she has undertaken residencies at the Thami Mnyele Foundation in Amsterdam and Noldor Residency in Accra. Mansan lives and works in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Chigozie Obi, born in 1997, is a Lagos-based multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores Black womanhood, identity, memory, and Igbo heritage. Working across painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, and digital media, Obi uses portraiture and storytelling to document everyday experiences and preserve personal and collective histories.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at 1-54 Marrakech, Future Fair New York, AG18 Gallery Vienna, and C+N Gallery CANEPANERI Genoa. She is a recipient of the Access Bank ART X Prize (2021) and The Future Awards Africa Prize for Art (2021), and was a resident at Gasworks, London, in 2022.
Cortney Herron, born in 1988 is a Los Angeles-based contemporary figurative painter whose practice bridges surrealism and the inner emotional world. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communication Design from UC Davis. Working across Oil, Acrylic, and digital mediums with earthy, organic palettes, her compositions capture the subtle energy moving between people, the weight of unspoken moments, and the quiet introspection within ordinary experiences.
Herron has exhibited extensively across the United States, including MANTL: Quiet Correction at Wonzimer, Los Angeles (2026), TRACE with TAPPAN Collective, Los Angeles (2025), N As In Nancy at Deep Space Gallery, Jersey City (2025), BUTTER Art Fair in Indianapolis (2024), and Dear April at Deep Space Gallery, Jersey City (2024). She has also participated in The Other Art Fair in Santa Monica (2023, 2024) and Affordable Art Fair in New York (2022).
Ernest Yankee Amabibi, born in 1994, is a Lagos-based visual artist, working across photography, cinema, and set design. He holds a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from Rivers State University, a Diploma in Film Directing from EbonyLife Creative Academy, and coursework from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the +234 Art Fair in Lagos and the UnLocal Exhibition in Brooklyn, New York. Beyond his artistic practice, he engages in humanitarian medical and social outreach across Central Africa, an experience that deeply informs his research into community and human connection.
Hamed Maiye, born in 1991, is a London-based interdisciplinary artist working across painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation. He holds a BA (Hons) in Architecture from the Canterbury School of Architecture (UCA). His practice examines social and economic narratives, memory, and heritage while exploring textiles like lace as vessels of history and ornamental objects.
His work has been exhibited at major international institutions and galleries, including Tate Britain, the Royal Academy of Arts, Saatchi Gallery, Sarabande Foundation, Fragment Gallery (New York), and Affinity Gallery (Lagos). Maiye has completed residencies with Sarabande, PM/AM, Block 336, and Camden Art Centre, and has executed high-profile commissions for institutions and brands including the V&A Museum, Selfridges, Netflix, and Chelsea Football Club.
Myles Igwebuike is a Nigerian-American fine artist, curator, and spatial practitioner whose work operates at the threshold of material intelligence, geopolitical memory, and strategic governance. He is currently studying, researching and teaching at the Yale School of Architecture, where his primary investigation, Excluded Imaginaries, interrogates the post-civil war reconstruction of Southeastern Nigeria as a critical site of socio-economic sorting.
By tracing how the dissolution of the East-Central State in the 1970s fractured a unified modernist plan into an architecture of exclusion, his work articulates a theory of “restorative insurgency” examining the spatial tactics through which residents actively reclaim agency within a broken grid.
This inquiry extends a broader, research-led practice that positions indigenous technological epistemologies not as passive heritage, but as active, contemporary frameworks for world-making. Igwebuike reads space as inherently polyphonic, treating historical and political rupture not merely as loss, but as a primary site of design intelligence.
Igwebuike’s curatorial trajectory spans major international platforms focused on alternative spatial models across the Global South. He served on the curatorial team for the second Sharjah Architecture Triennial titled The Beauty of Impermanence: An Architecture of Adaptability, contributing to critical discourses on scarcity, material re-use, and contextual design tactics.
Additionally, he curated the Nigeria Pavilion at the London Design Biennale, titled Hopes and Impediments, which was awarded a Special Mention for its nuanced navigation of complex cultural narratives and spatial histories.
An alumnus of the Royal College of Art, his practice continuously bridges theoretical inquiry with systemic implementation. Navigating the dialectics of public governance and design strategy, Igwebuike previously served as Special Assistant to the Governor of Anambra State.
He continues to shape global design policy as a Design Expert for the UK Design Council and as a member of the Bureau of European Design Associations (BEDA) Expert Group.
Affinity gallery situated at a business but serene part of Lagos Island has stamped a unique brand of curatorial experiences bringing on board, specific artists within and in Diaspora.
