Bunmi Agusto (b. 1999, Nigeria) is an artist, writer, curator and art historian focused on fantasy and magical storytelling, especially from a West African perspective. Her practices are informed by her upbringing in Lagos, Nigeria. She is of Yoruba, Edo and Afro-Brazilian descent. Her mixed-media artworks combine painting, drawing and printmaking to depict otherworldly landscapes merged with geometric compositions that draw from West African aesthetics embedded in her cultural consciousness. Collectively, her work is narratively informed by a paracosm — an alternate reality in the artist’s mind named ‘Within’ with braided terrains. This world reflects the artist’s interiority and is a site to explore psychology, cultural theory and the evolution of selfhood through the lens of fantasy. Within functions as a repository for all people, objects and theories the artist encounters in her waking life as she creates fantastical retellings of her lived experiences as well as the unseen mechanics of the metaphysical forces around us. Therefore, each work of hers acts as a story panel in an intricate ever-expanding narrative.
Solo exhibitions include Dialogue Between Two Clouds, Jnane Tamsna, Marrakech (2025); Lands of the Living, DADA Gallery, London (2024); Outside, kó, Lagos 9 (2022); 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, DADA Gallery, London (2022); Psychoscape, TAFETA, London (2022); Escape To Within, DADA Gallery, London (2021).
Group exhibitions include Collecting Now, Yemisi Shyllon Museum, Lagos (2024); Untitled Art Fair, kó, Miami (2024); 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, TAFETA, London (2024); Dallas Art Fair, TAFETA, Texas (2024); New Contemporaries, Camden Arts Centre, London (2024); TEFAF, TAFETA, Maastricht (2024); Yinka Shonibare CBE RA: Free The Wind, The Spirit and The Sun, Stephen (2023); Friedman Gallery, London (2023); New Contemporaries, Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool (2023); MFA Degree Show, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford (2023); Chasing Spirits, Foreign Agent, Lausanne (2023); Reverie, DADA Gallery, Lagos (2023); baby hair and afros, Vortic Curated, London & Santa Monica Art Museum, Los Angeles, Virtual Reality (2023); Issue 01, DADA Gallery, London (2022); Art On A Postcard IWD Auction, The Bomb Factory South, London (2022); ASSEMBLE, V.O Curations Mayfair, London 2021 Art X Lagos, DADA Gallery, Lagos 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, DADA Gallery, London Redefining the Trend - Histories in the Making, 1-54 x Christie’s, London Now, Now, TAFETA, London I Am Not A Goddess… Unless I Say I Am, SABO Art Advisory x Amar Singh Gallery, Lagos 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, DADA Gallery, Paris 2020 Everything Good Will Come, DADA Gallery, Digital 2019 other on Other's Territory, Central Saint Martins, London GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020 Reflections, Central Saint Martins Window Gallery, London Young Contemporaries 2020: Boot Camp Exhibition, Rele Gallery, Lagos, Digital London Grads Now, Saatchi Gallery, London UAL Graduate Showcase, Central Saint Martins, London, Digital On Location, Central Saint Martins, London, Digital Burnt Out, Central Saint Martins, London Squeeze, Karen Tronel Gallery, London Blacklisted: An Indefinite Revolution, Christie’s Education, London 2019 Women In Art X Street Souk, Harbour Point, Lagos The State of Things, Copeland Gallery, London The Colour of Pain, Imperial College, London Waiting, Central Saint Martins, London Wheels To Water, Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London Xhibit, The Koppel Project Central Gallery, London Intersect, London School of Economics, London
Highlights and collections
Private Collections across Nigeria, Austria, the UK and the US Coronation Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria Mansfield College, University of Oxford, UK Samdani Art Foundation, Bangladesh