African Artists Exploring Fashion In Their Artistic Practice

Keeping with the recent trend, this issue opens with an article spotlighting African artists integrating fashion into their artworks.

EDITORIAL

African Artists With Their Fashion-Inspired Artworks

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute will unveil “Costume Art,” an exhibition that focuses on the relationship between fashion and the body. The grand Met Gala, held on May 4, 2026, was influenced by this theme. The exhibition will open on May 10, 2026, inaugurating a nearly 12,000-square-foot gallery suite adjacent to the Great Hall, known as the Condé M. Nast Galleries. The exhibition will match about 200 artworks with approximately 200 garments and accessories. The exhibition will survey representations of the dressed body across primarily Western art from prehistory to the present.

In keeping with the recent trend, this article spotlights African artists integrating fashion into their artworks. Featuring paintings of colourful headpieces and sculptural installations of shoes and distinctive batiks on figures, these artists are interpreting the dynamic relationship between fashion and contemporary art.

Anthony Akinbola

Nigerian-American artist Anthony Akinbola is known for his signature wall-mounted paintings, single and multi-panel works that utilize the ubiquitous du-rag as their primary material. He explores the du-rag as both a material for art-making and as commentary on larger issues of identity, respectability, and commodification of African American culture. His layered, richly colored compositions celebrate and signify the distinct cultures that shape his identity. Some of these large-scale pieces have been exhibited in solo presentations at the Museum of Arts and Design and the Queens Museum.

Anthony Akinbola, White Bronco, 2022, durags, acrylic on wood panel, 279.4 x 182.9 cm. Image courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery.