VILLAGER: sovereign is my tradition

Artist Talk: Sunday, November 8 | 2 PM - 4 PM Hotel Indigo | 24 West Franklin Street | Free & Open to the Public About Maryland Art Place, in partnership with Hotel Indigo Baltimore, is pleased to present VILLAGER: sovereign is my tradition, a solo exhibition by Baltimore-based artist, VILLAGER. The exhibition is on view at Hotel Indigo, located at 24 West Franklin St. from September 19 - November 13, 2026 . A public reception will take place on Sunday, October 18 from 2 PM to 4 PM and the Artist Talk/Closing Reception will take place on Sunday, November 8 from 2 PM to 4 PM. Artist Bio VILLAGER (b. Abdulrasheed Adekunle Adaranijo), they/them, is a Nigerian-born contemporary transdisciplinary artist and cultural producer currently based in Baltimore, MD. Formally trained as a Water Microbiologist and Environmental Researcher, VILLAGER earned a B.S. in Environmental Chemistry from Towson University and is currently studying in the Leroy E. Hoffberger School of Painting MFA Program at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Artist Statement Actively investigating the liminal intersections of material memory and sensory intelligence, migration, Yorùbá knowledge production, and postcolonial African identity, VILLAGER synthesizes their paintings into a dynamic topography of critical inquiry into the poetics of relational interplay between objects, bodies, and spaces, utilizing layers and applications of color, movement, rhythm, layering, texture, pattern, scarification, and mark-making to examine how form, design (beauty aesthetic), function, and content intersect to produce alternate ways of seeing, being, and knowing rooted in the post-colonial Afro-futurist consciousness. Their work is often characterized by undulating and errant, neural-like, semi-circular woven patterned marks and gestural scars that take form through an amalgamation of abstraction, figuration, and collaging traditions, emerging as a sovereign creolized visual language that engages questions of culture, identity, consciousness, and belonging. Through their work, VILLAGER ultimately invites the viewer to reexamine what it means to be shaped and transformed by what we sense, experience, know, remember, and sustain. Read more Toggle Painting