Interrogating Memories in Sanyaolu’s Solo Show

Yinka Olatunbosun

It began with a heartfelt conversation with her mother. For this artist, memory is everything. Iyunola Sanyaolu, a painter and sculptor, is quite meticulous when it comes to moulding details of personal memories engraved on her mind. At this first Lagos show titled “How to Hold a Moonbeam; How Do You Hold Memory?,” she takes a restrictive look at the nature of passing time.

Her return to Lagos for her second solo exhibition was quite ceremonial. The doors at Rele Gallery Ikoyi were flung open to art connoisseurs on October 26th when the show was officially open. The view was mesmerising, the walls paraded paintings and unique sculptors from this artist who boasts of an eclectic taste in music.

Her Instagram page- flooded with videos of some of her studio sessions- is a window to her soul and work life. In this body of work, she reflects on how fleeting time can be and how memories of loved ones linger, yet slowly fade. Digging deep into the subject of memory, she explores personal reflection and human decisions which was reminiscent of her first solo exhibition held in Los Angeles, USA titled ‘While We Roam’ held at Rele Gallery in 2022.

This on-going show invites the viewer into the artist’s mother’s garden. She dubbed one of them “21st September 2022.’’ Sanyaolu recalled the conversation she had with her mother that brought her face-to-face with thoughts of mortality.

“The title of the exhibition came from my favourite movie, ‘The Sound of Music,’ which my mother loves too. Early in the film, there’s a song about ‘moonbeam’—something that’s hard to hold on to. That’s how I see memory: fleeting, but precious,” she revealed.

This creative art graduate of the University of Lagos IyunOla Sanyaolu is unique for the technique involving texturizing with paint residues—a method she fondly refers to as “sculpting with paint.”

She explained how her mother’s garden influenced the thought behind her pieces.

“In the garden, I saw everything my mother had planted, and I wondered about life without her; how everything she had nurtured might fade away, and how that moment was already becoming a memory,” she explained as she reflected on the fragility of memory.

Featuring 12 paintings and four mini sculptures, the exhibition which runs to November 30th is a showcase of Sanyaolu’s three-dimensional pieces and her signature technique-impasto- judiciously used in capturing feelings, giving newer meanings to fading memories.

“Muted colours feel quiet, and I want to balance out the boldness of my strokes,” she continued. “I try to show how memories fade or how we cover them up intentionally to move on. It’s a metaphor for the things that slowly slip away.”

Her journey into Lagos art scene began when she was selected as part of the Rele Arts Foundation Young Contemporaries in 2021. Select group exhibitions include Its A wRAP (2021), Rele Gallery, Lagos and Reading Abstraction (2021), Rele Gallery, Los Angeles. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself (2023) Bode Gallery, It’s A wRap (2023), Rele Gallery.

Iyun has also exhibited in art fairs across the world including The Amory Show (2022), Felix Art Fair (2023). IyunOla Sanyaolu is a 2019/2020 Arts in Medicine (AIM) Fellow.