In Metala, Popoola goes cultural, spiritual

Metal artist, Dotun Popoola, continues his exploration of the cultural and spiritual in making museum-quality art.

IN ‘Metala’, his sixth solo art exhibition opened at The Grandeur Hotel, Lekki, Lagos on December 19, metal artist, Dotun Popoola has continued his synergetic journey in art.

That trip sees him exploring the cultural and spiritual mix of the number 13 with metallic objects in the show under the new entrant, Art Pantheon.

Ongoing till December 30 and curated by Nana Sonoiki, the exhibition theme, Popoola explained, came as an answer to connecting his last solo show with the next one.

“After my last solo exhibition, which had 15 works on display, I needed to reduce the number, so 13 and 7 came to mind. I settled for 13, as I suddenly realised that 13 is ‘metala’ in Yoruba. And ‘la’ means to breakthrough in Yoruba.”

The breakthrough aspect, he added, was a reality for him, noting that “since I started my journey in synergetic sculpture, my entire life has been transformed.”

Popoola further observed that many people in the spiritual context see 13 as one of the odd numbers that give lousy luck. “And on the contrary, some other persons, like metaphysics, for example, believe that 13 is a lucky number.”

Some of the exhibits in ‘Metala’ including ‘Okere gun ori iroko, oju ode da’ and ‘Luji Oijefon, O je Awo Eran’ are deep in cultural expressions. Popoola explained that ‘Okere gun ori Iroko…’ is proverbial; “retreating after chasing a particular course that is not yielding results.”

For the massive buffalo sculpture titled ‘Luji  Oijefon, O je Awo Eran’ (A person of Ile Oluji won’t eat buffalo, but can eat elephant), Popoola reprises the story of Ile Oluji, Ondo State where natives don’t eat buffalo meat. During a war, the animal reportedly used its feet to uproot substances the people applied to produce herbs that directed them back home.

There’s also a piece entitled ‘Portrait of Irinola’ which takes metal sculpture to depict a domestic animal to a new height. With his fantastic creation from found objects, Popoola’s depiction of dog’s head celebrates the beauty in recycled materials and injects aesthetics into mechanical-like textures.

The Eyo theme has been widely projected over time, but in a mixed media of metal and other materials, Popoola explores new aesthetics value in the elegant piece entitled ‘Eyo’.

Significantly, the synergy in rhythmic strength between pieces of welded objects and numerical expression makes Metala a rare exhibition in the genre of metal art.

Given the scale of the exhibition, which has several museum-quality works and challenge of space, the artist had a task picking the right curator. In Sonoiki, he found “an untapped resource” in art management.

“I curated seven shows in the US, including my years at NGA, but I still wanted someone to curate ‘Metala’. I got quite a list of names, but I chose Nana. She is a good listener, and I am proud that she has delivered a standard show.”

“Dotun is a synergetic metal sculptor who has carved a niche for himself with his hyper-realistic monumental metal sculptures,” curator, Sonoiki paid back the compliments. She added that sponsors including The Grandeur Hotel, Seven Up, Tiger Lager Beer, The Luxury Reporter, Belvedere Vodka and George Osodi. made Metala possible.

The ongoing show, Sonoiki assured, “promises to renew art lovers’ energy and projects amazing possibilities in recycling scraps or what we call useless and not useful objects, but being transformed into priceless luxury art.”

She added that “it has been an exciting journey working with Dotun and every step with peculiar energy released. The pandemic, as experienced generally by the art world, dealt several blows but this energy kept us going and we stand firm.”

Popoola, holder of a National Diploma in Painting and General Arts from Auchi Polytechnic, and a first and second degree in Fine and applied arts with a specialisation in sculpture and painting from Obafemi Awolowo University Ile Ife, Osun State is a synergetic metal sculptor.

He has carved a niche for himself with monumental metal sculptures. He is passionate about touching lives through his artistic and leadership skills; turning trash to treasures, rubbish to rubies and waste to wealth.

Popoola has executed several monumental sculptures and large murals both in Nigeria and the United States of America. He continues to provide landmark mentoring opportunities for professional development for local and international artists in his studio.

His immense contribution to the growth of art globally has been featured in over 100 publications. His artistic practice is based on a personal philosophy that art should be explored as an agent of change, and as a tool of socio-cultural review, reengineering and protest against environmental decadence.

Popoola’s body of works has addressed the issue of waste management and conservation, infrastructural decay, and the need to repurpose, recycle and reuse wastes that make our environment unsightly and threaten the ecosystem. His goal is to create a luxury brand from discarded materials and giving better values to dead and abandoned scraps.

The certified hybrid metal sculptor and resident artist at John Lopez Studio, Lemmon, South Dakota, US has featured in exhibitions including ‘ArtX Lagos’. He represented Nigeria at the maiden scrap art exhibition in Qatar 2019 and Global Art Festival in Gujarat, India this year.

He facilitates art workshops for students, professionals, NGOs, healthcare institutions, hospices, orphanage homes, rehabilitation centres and schools locally and internationally.

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