THE GREAT BOOM!: Solo Show

 

From April 28 to June 13, 2026, Upsilon Gallery presents The Great Boom!, the first solo exhibition in Italy by Nigerian contemporary artist Móyòsórè Martins. This important milestone coincides with the artist’s participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, where he will be featured in the Pavilion of the Republic of Sierra Leone, marking a significant moment in the international expansion of his career.

 

Produced by Marcelo Zimmler, the exhibition brings together a new body of 13 works accompanied by 8 panels, representing a turning point in Martins’ artistic practice. At the center of the project is The Watchman, a recurring archetype in the artist’s work inspired by Yoruba traditions and guardian figures from West African ritual culture. In this new series, Martins’ visual language evolves toward greater emotional intensity and a more expansive, materially driven approach to painting.

 

“The work speaks about pressure, accumulation, release, and what follows,” explains Martins. “The Watchman moves through all of this, witnessing the moment before, during, and after The Great Boom! — a period marked by tension, rupture, and ultimately, expansion.”

 

Partly inspired by the period during which the artist worked as a night watchman in the Bronx, this figure has evolved into a central and constantly shifting presence within his practice. It embodies vigilance, awareness, protection, and transformation — not as a fixed image, but as a fluid psychological entity observing and responding to both inner and external realities. Through this evolving mythology, Martins explores themes of identity, displacement, spirituality, and perception.

 

Working with oil paint, oil stick, pigment, aerosol, graphite, and collage, Martins constructs his canvases through processes of layering and deconstruction — scratching, erasing, and rebuilding surfaces to reveal simultaneous traces of creation and destruction. His paintings are intentionally raw, characterized by irregular edges, embedded text, and symbolic fragments that form a visual code drawing equally from the aesthetics of ritual altars and urban visual culture.

 

“Each painting contains symbols and hidden messages. The word ‘Why?’ often appears in my works because it leaves the viewer with the same question,” the artist notes.

Parallel to the Milan exhibition, Martins will present the project Worlds in the Making at the Venice Biennale (May 9–November 22, 2026) within the Pavilion of the Republic of Sierra Leone. This participation represents an important institutional milestone, positioning his work within a broader global dialogue surrounding diasporic identity, symbolism, and contemporary visual languages.

 

“Móyòsórè Martins’ work resonates on both a deeply personal and universal level,” says Michelle Edelman. “His ability to translate psychological experience into a powerful visual language is what makes his practice so compelling. Presenting his work in Milan and at the Venice Biennale represents a pivotal moment in his career and reflects the growing international recognition of his voice.”

 

Móyòsórè Martins (b. 1986) is a Nigerian artist based in New York whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting and mixed media. His work investigates psychological states, symbolic identity, and the tension between inner life and external perception.

Self-taught and raised in Lagos, Martins draws from both his Brazilian and Nigerian heritage, integrating Yoruba cultural references into a contemporary visual language that merges figurative, abstract, and narrative elements. His works are distinguished by dense, layered surfaces incorporating text, collage, painterly gestures, and sculptural interventions, often embedding messages, symbols, and mantras.

 

His practice extends beyond painting into sculpture and mixed media, employing materials such as clay, plasticine, and reclaimed objects. Working between Nigeria and the Bronx, Martins infuses his work with a deeply personal and diasporic dimension. Central to his visual universe is The Watchman, an evolving archetype through which he constructs an ongoing personal mythology.