By Chukwuma Ajakah

Prolific visual artist, art educator and Founder Artegun Foundation, Yusuf Durodola, in partnership with the Belgian Embassy, has opened a solo exhibition that proposes new ways of perceiving identity, memory, and self.

The Belgian Ambassador’s residence in Lagos opened to a full house of the art and cultural community- within and outside Nigeria, for a solo exhibition by renowned visual artist, Yusuf Durodola.

Dignitaries at the momentous event included members of the diplomatic corps from Germany, Italy, Norway, and other embassies.

Durodola explains his motivation in framing perception as both a subject of interest and method, saying, “While the eyes allow us to see, it is perception that enables us to negotiate the presence of our reality.”

The art exhibition featured 17 major works which include the following: Behind the Veil, The Journey Within, Moment of Reflection, Gaze Beyond Confinement, Meditation, Ayọka, Beauty Within, Sisi Oge, and What the Shadow Holds?

Weaving multifarious psychosocial realities into his thematic preoccupation, Durodola delicately moves from portraiture to abstraction, and what he describes as “cartographic interventions.”

The exhibition showcases a three-stage process that unfolds as the viewer beholds each canvas.

Beginning with an abstract foundation fraught with multiple, gestures, colours, and textures, the artist reorders the terrain of thought and intuition into a concrete
figurative image that emerges from within the same field, but not placed on its surface.

The artist reveals that the figure emerging from the abstracted form reflects the way people develop overtime as due to their personal input and experiences instead of overly reliance on external influences.

The creative weaves the cartographic lines together with other details that bring about the transformation of faces into maps, suggesting an “internal geography” made up of memory, aspiration, and realization.

In staging this body of work, Durodola delicately infuses the philosophical undertones and thematic concerns of each piece into the frames without providing all the details, giving the viewer the space to participate in interrogating the painting.

Art collectors, promoters, critics, students, and cultural stakeholders gathered for the viewing of the iconoclastic artworks.

The presence of leading figures from across the art ecosystem at the event gave it the tone of a town hall with insightful nuggets on the future of visual art in Nigeria.

The artist commended Ambassador Pieter Leenknegt for not only hosting the event, but for “his unwavering commitment to promoting cultural diplomacy through the arts over the years.”

The exhibition, expertly curated by Katurag Chinyio, provided an immersive environment in which visitors could engage with the ‘New Gaze’ the innovative artist.proposes.

According to the curator, the show provides an opportunity for people to learn how to slow down, suspend assumptions, and cultivate the habit of looking beyond present realities to see the invisible possibilities that could define their humanity.

From the emblematic titles, guests could guess the artist’s intended message. Among the revealing titles are: What the Shadow Holds, Gaze Beyond Confinement, Ayoka, and Sisi Oge. With each piece, the artist challenges society’s excesses, especially the habit of making superficial judgments. Sisi Oge and Ayola are visual narratives rooted in Yoruba tradition. With conversations in the same indigenous language, the artworks depict beauty.
Other titles like Meditation and Moment of Reflection appeal to viewers’ sense of reasoning, demanding calmness and sobriety in a boisterous setting.

According to Durodola, the pieces collectively examine the spaces between appearance and essence. “Beyond every face is a story, beyond every gesture is an intention, beyond every map is a journey, and beyond every visible reality lies an invisible world, waiting to be discovered,” he enthused.

One of the masterpieces, The Journey Within, appears to simultaneously form and dissolve into diverse indigo routes. Rather than direct the viewer to a subject, the painting appeals for sober reflection, positioning the viewer in introspective mood.

Durodola’s New Gaze is not only about aesthetics. It emphasizes the values of attention, reflection, and empathy. In an art market often driven by instant recognition, this exhibition insists on slowness, reflection, and empathy as aesthetic tools.

The multitalented creative portrays perception not as an unconscious or accidental act but as a deliberate step toward consistent improvement in attitude, problem-solving, and interpersonal relationships.

The exhibition comes at the right time when viewers need to be reminded that they must look beyond the mundane to have a proper view of the subject matter so as to contribute meaningfully to the conversations.

Although the show opened on July 9 and closed July 26, 2026, it has continued to be a topical subject in both media coverage and art spaces. Critics and audiences are still engaging its themes, which mirror new ways of perceiving familiar objects and experiences.

Through New Gaze, Durodola proposes a different way of documenting art, replacing conventional standard catalogues with a novel pattern that reimagines how art is presented, read, and experienced. His CATOMAG is neither a traditional catalogue nor a typical magazine, but a creative fusion that cuts across the two. It is a publication that offers a new visual experience.

In addition to documenting works, the creative genius uses New Gaze to redirect attention to how art is produced and received. The collection is a compendium of art, design, ideas, storytelling, and documentation. It integrates these concepts to create a visual window from which visitors can “gaze” on art, to seeing, reading, interpreting, and experiencing it from diverse perspectives.