Echoes of Home
Echoes of Home- Family, Heritage and Identity Across Africa
Mpho Feni (South Africa), Lionel Mbayiwa (Zimbabwe), Olamide Ogunade (Nigeria)
28 May – 02 July 2026
Introduction
We live in a world today where distance has collapsed. Through our phones we can see almost everything, consume almost everything, and absorb cultures and influences from every corner of the world within seconds. The world has become increasingly interconnected, a global village shaped by technology, movement and constant noise. In many ways, younger generations are inheriting realities vastly different from those of the generations that came before them. What was once local has become global. What was once inherited is now continuously reinterpreted. Yet within this rapidly shifting landscape, the human need for grounding, belonging and identity remains unchanged.
Echoes of Home brings together three artists from across the African continent whose works explore these ideas through very different visual languages and lived experiences. Mpho Feni, Lionel Mbayiwa and Olamide Ogunade each reflect on what it means to carry heritage, memory and personal history within an increasingly contemporary and interconnected world.
What I find particularly exciting about contemporary African art today is the way younger generations of artists are navigating both modernity and heritage simultaneously. Across the continent, artists are increasingly embracing contemporary techniques, global visual culture and modern ways of living, while still remaining deeply connected to their own histories, traditions and systems of meaning. In many ways, this exhibition reflects that evolving dialogue.
While elements of these artists’ visual languages may borrow from techniques historically associated with European masters and movements, whether expressionism, cubism or the portrait traditions of the Renaissance and Baroque periods — these influences are not simply replicated. They are absorbed, transformed and reinterpreted through distinctly African perspectives and lived experiences. The result is a body of work that feels both globally contemporary and deeply rooted in cultural identity.
For Mbayiwa, heritage exists as a living and evolving system of storytelling, symbolism and cultural continuity. Through his Nhaka series, the Shona word for “heritage” or “inheritance”, the artist explores the ways identity and knowledge are passed between generations, while also acknowledging the growing influence of global contemporary culture on younger generations today.
His layered compositions navigate the space between tradition and modernity, where inherited systems of meaning continue to adapt within an increasingly urbanised and digitally connected world.
Ogunade approaches the idea of home through memory and emotional experience. His recurring bubble motifs become metaphors for the fragile and fleeting nature of lived experience itself, suspended briefly before disappearing into time. His works reflect on the emotional residue left behind by people, spaces and moments that continue to shape us long after they have passed. In a fast-moving contemporary world, the paintings invite viewers to slow down and reconnect with the immediacy and fragility of the present moment.
In contrast, Feni grounds the notion of home within the rhythms of communal life. His paintings draw from scenes of family gatherings, shared rituals and collective experience, where values are not taught explicitly but absorbed through presence, observation and participation. Through his expressive use of colour and gesture, Feni captures the emotional warmth and continuity that exist within everyday human interaction.
I have always believed that if one wishes to understand the heartbeat of a country or continent, one should look at its art. Art often reveals the emotional, cultural and psychological shifts taking place beneath the surface of society. What is emerging across Africa today is not only a growing confidence within contemporary visual culture, but also a renewed awareness of the importance of heritage, memory and value systems within an increasingly fast-moving world.
Perhaps this is what Echoes of Home ultimately reflects, not a nostalgic return to the past, but the search for grounding within the present. The exhibition does not reject the realities of modern life or technological progress. Rather, it asks how we move forward without losing the stories, histories and human connections that continue to shape who we are.
Christopher Moller