Retro Africa Explores Memory, Masculinity, and Emotional Inheritance in The Rooms We Carry Exhibition

Some spaces never truly leave us. That’s the central idea behind The Rooms We Carry, a new group exhibition at Retro Africa Gallery in Abuja that examines the emotional architecture people build over a lifetime. Opening June 19, the exhibition brings together five contemporary artists — Enoch Chinweuba, Oluwatobiloba Fasalejo, Christopher Samuel Idowu, Tiwa Akinjide, and Uzor Ugoala — whose distinct practices converge around a shared question: What invisible spaces shape who we become?

Working across painting and sculpture, the artists transform everyday domestic imagery into meditations on memory, grief, spirituality, identity, and personal transformation. Homes become more than physical structures. Dining tables, family photographs, curtains, incense smoke, and familiar rooms emerge as symbols of emotional inheritance, carrying stories that often remain unspoken.

Rather than focusing on architecture itself, The Rooms We Carry explores the psychological interiors we carry with us long after leaving a place. Some of these “rooms” are inherited through family and tradition, while others are built through solitude, faith, responsibility, loss, or self-discovery.

Each artist approaches this idea from a different perspective.

Oluwatobiloba Fasalejo reflects on childhood memory and the quiet intimacy of domestic life, drawing from personal experiences within the Yoruba home. His figurative paintings examine how absence and familiarity coexist, revealing how ordinary objects can preserve emotional histories.

Christopher Samuel Idowu expands those conversations through mixed media, photography, and painting, exploring spirituality, time, and human interconnectedness. His work often incorporates weathered materials and earthy tones that evoke the fleeting nature of life while suggesting hope beyond physical existence.

Enoch Chinweuba turns inward to examine healing, faith, and identity through emotionally charged figurative works distinguished by rich colour palettes. His paintings invite viewers to consider the vulnerability involved in personal growth and emotional restoration.

For British-Nigerian artist Tiwa Akinjide, abstraction becomes the language of introspection. Through layered surfaces, sculptural forms, and gestures that balance control with spontaneity, his work investigates psychological space rather than literal representation.

Meanwhile, sculptor Uzor Ugoala explores existential questions through fragmented forms crafted from wood, resin, and metal. His sculptures balance tension and delicacy while considering themes of freedom, purpose, and transformation.

Although each artist speaks through a distinct visual language, the exhibition is united by its exploration of emotional inheritance — those often invisible burdens and comforts passed between generations, relationships, and lived experiences.

Retro Africa founder and curator Dolly Kola-Balogun describes the exhibition as an invitation to recognize the emotional spaces people often carry silently within themselves.

“The Rooms We Carry invites viewers to recognise those hidden interiors and find comfort in the understanding that these experiences are rarely carried alone.”

Rather than offering easy resolutions, the exhibition encourages viewers to pause with emotions that are often overlooked: longing, responsibility, tenderness, loneliness, resilience, and hope. It asks how memory shapes our sense of home, how rituals preserve those we’ve lost, and what it means to become someone unfamiliar — even to ourselves.

Since its founding in 2015, Retro Africa has become one of Nigeria’s leading platforms for contemporary African art, championing both emerging and established artists through exhibitions, public programming, and international collaborations. The Rooms We Carry continues that mission by presenting a deeply introspective exhibition that reflects not only individual experiences, but the emotional landscapes shared across generations.

The Rooms We Carry is on view at Retro Africa Gallery in Abuja.