Mitochondria Gallery presents Gifts of the Soil, a group exhibition that brings together works Victor Olaoye, Nedia Were, Izere Antoine, Laju Sholola and Nathalie Djakou Kassi, among others.
This exhibition explores how local ecosystems shape both personal consciousness and collective cultural identity. By emphasising the deep ties between land and lived experience, the exhibition highlights the environmental roots of memory, belonging and place. Featuring a range of paintings and sculptures, the show brings together artists whose practices are informed by heritage, adaptation as well as cultural transmission. Here, land is not just physical terrain but a generative force that informs identity and community.
Victor Olaoye’s gestural abstraction paintings delve into themes of life cycles and decay to interrogate the fragility and resilience of our environment. He blends elements of organic, surreal and bodily forms in an earthy palette reminiscent of the agricultural terrains of Western Nigeria, as he creates ambiguity in a space where collapse and regeneration coexist. Izere Antoine on the other hand, presents impressionistic landscapes drawn from the verdant topography of Rwanda, evoking a quiet intimacy with the land.
Laju Sholola debuts work from her new ‘Dark’ series, which uses mixed media to reflect on uncertainty, introspection and resilience through a palette of muted tones and shadowy figures. Additionally, Nedia Were’s large-scale figurative paintings pay homage to the Kenyan countryside and the layered construction of identity. Nathalie Djakou Kassi contributes wooden sculptures that reinterpret traditional Cameroonian forms such as the palaver chair and stool, invoking themes of dialogue, heritage and communal gathering.
The soil emerges as both material and metaphor, origin and archive, offering a site for ancestral knowledge and evolving cultural expression. Gifts of the Soil invites reflection on the environment as a living repository of meaning and positions artistic practice as a form of ecological and cultural inquiry. The exhibition will run until the 16th of August at Mitochondria Gallery in Houston, Texas.
