About Exhibition

19 December 2020

Métàlá is a Yorùbá word, which translates as ‘thirteen (13)’. This is a revelatory mantra that Dotun Popoola wants us to interact with and interrogate in the course of viewing his 6th solo exhibition. In the innermost contemplation of the artist, he was only negotiating with a number that is convenient for a decent show. While his intuitive wave is charged at the ‘metal’ in the ‘Métàlá’, Dotun has simply thrown up a volume that encapsulates his life and art that needed to be deciphered.

Métàlá in the Yorùbá number system is méta-le-mewàá (3+10=13). It is a number that typifies the monthly calendar of the people before the now widely accepted Gregorian calendar. This is so, since the Yorùbá considered 13 lunar months to be a year. Hence when the moon is sighted, they say: osù ye. This signifies that a Yoruba month (osù) contains only 28 days summing up to 364 days per year when multiplied by 13. It is not a mere coincidence that December 19, the kick-off date of this show falls within the 13th lunar month of the year 2020.

Despite the global oddities and absurdities thrown at us by the year 2020, Dotun reintroduces us to the atavistic basics where attention is paid to the instructive meaning, realistic implication and practical application of number system to life, existence, creativity and art. Métàlá (13) is not just a number as presented here under.

E-Catalog
picture of dotun popoola at his workshop

Dotun Popoola

A synergetic metal sculptor who has carved a niche for himself with his monumental metal sculptures. He had his first and second degree in Fine and Applied arts with a specialization in sculpture and painting respectively from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. In 2018, he was featured at the West Africa International Art Fair “ARTX Lagos”. Dotun represented Nigeria at the 2019 Maiden Scrap Art Exhibition in Qatar, and Global Art Festival in Gujarat India in 2020. He has participated in twentynine(29) group, fourteen(14) joint, and five(5) solo exhibitions.

He is passionate about touching lives through his artistic and leadership skills; turning trash to treasures, and rubbish to rubies. Dotun facilitates art workshops for students, professionals, NGOs, healthcare institutions, hospices, orphanage homes, rehabilitation renters and schools locally and internationally.

Dotun has equally executed several monumental sculptures and large murals both in Nigeria and in the United States of America. He continues to provide landmark mentoring opportunities for Professional development for local and International artists in his studio in Ile-Ife, South-West Nigeria. His Immense contribution to the growth of Art globally has been featured in over 100 publications both locally and internationally.
This includes the New York Times, Washington Time, BBC, CNN Africa, BBC pidgin, Reuters, Aljazeera and Channels Television, to mention but a few.