Marks as Maps: Soji Adesina's "Marks of Our Future Past" Debuts at O'DA Art Gallery

Lagos-based artist Soji Adesina marks a significant evolution in his practice with his debut solo exhibition, "Marks of Our Future Past," presented at O'DA Art Gallery. Running from September 20 to October 25, 2025, the commanding body of work moves beyond his acclaimed portraiture to interrogate how memory, heritage, and identity resonate across generations by transforming ancient scarification and drawing practices into a refined contemporary visual language.

Soji Adesina, Cicatrix, 2025 | Courtesy of O'DA Art

Adesina's exhibition posits that ancestral marks are not mere historical relics but living systems and maps for navigating our present moment. Through graphite, charcoal, and the deliberate use of negative space, the artist foregrounds line as both medium and meaning, asserting that the deepest cultural markings are, in fact, "marks of our future past." The exhibition is primarily structured around two distinct and compelling series: Cicatrix and Ife Dialogues.

The Power of Scarification in Cicatrix

The Cicatrix series directly engages with scarification, transforming it into a contemporary visual language that merges personal memory with ancestral reference. The works feature distorted proportions—thickened necks, emaciated facial planes, and deep-set eyes—that evoke the monumental brass heads of Ife, drawing a direct line to Yoruba court traditions.

Adesina uses this aesthetic distortion, which often borders on the gargoyle-like, as a deliberate shock to privilege meaning and power over conventional beauty. As the artist notes, "the larger portions of any figure indicate power." Furthermore, hair is rendered as cloud-like afros, magnifying the natural beauty of Black hair and recalling personal memory. These works operate as a powerful reclamation of African aesthetics, countering colonial narratives with fierce dignity.

Cicatrix, 2025 | Graphite & charcoal on paper | 152.5 x 122 cm | Courtesy of O'DA Art

Psychological Depth in Ife Dialogues

In the Ife Dialogues series, Adesina tackles the same question of historical connection through a different formal approach. Here, head portraits are rendered using dense cross-hatchings and tonal gradations, giving them the appearance of topographical studies.

Rather than a historical debate, Adesina treats the traditional Ife marks—single, double, or triple lines arranged horizontally or vertically—as primary compositional tools that preserve sculptural and emotional presence. The figures, which are composite and mature, display restraint and projected calm, with eyes occasionally closed and mouths slightly open. This intentional quietness suggests profound interior psychological states, removing the works from simple museum or anthropological studies to reveal the underlying complexity, resilience, and psychological depth that underpin centuries of cultural continuity.

"Marks of Our Future Past" speaks directly to a moment where cultural identity is in constant negotiation, presenting ancestral practices as technologies for encoding dignity and continuity into the very surface of being. Soji Adesina's debut solo exhibition is a crucial statement on how heritage can function as prophecy, offering a blueprint for the future embedded within the lines of the past.