Born in 1991, Missouri, USA
Lives and works in New York, USA
Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola (b. 1991, Columbia, Missouri) is a first-generation American raised between Missouri and Nigeria.
Anthony Akinbola’s practice carries a multifaceted approach to medium and composition, wherein he combines and constrasts varying elements of color to explore the intricacies of identity. By incorporating totemic materials, such as palm oil, hair brushes, and durags - a garment used in the maintenance of African hair - Akinbola delves into concerns of consumption, commodification of Black culture. Upon closer examination of their historical and cultural significance, his works highlight these readymades as embedded within a greater narrative of the complex relationship between Africa and Black America.
Akinbola was selected for the Anderson Ranch Art Center Residency in 2017, was awarded the Van Lier Fellowship in 2019, and was an artist in residence at Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna in 2020. He has featured in exhibitions at The Queens Museum, NY, The Zuckerman Museum of Art, GA, The Verbeke Foundation, Belgium, the Museum of Art and Design, NY, amongst others. He has mounted a significant solo exhibition in early 2021 at the Kohler Arts Center, WI.