DEVOTION, DREAMS, AND DESTINY

Eubie Blake Cultural Center is pleased to present Devotion, Dreams, and Destiny, a solo exhibition of works by the Nigerian–born Transdisciplinary Artist, VILLAGER (b. A. Adekunle Adaranijo) on view from September 11 to October 11, 2025. VILLAGER’s work explores the intersections of post-colonial identity, material intelligence, and ancestral/indigenous knowledge production through a spiritual, anthropological, and visual-material-based inquiry that uncovers and interprets the sublime, intangible forces shaping the evolution of culture, identity, and consciousness. 

Inspired by the mythological and time-bending metaphysical landscapes of The Famished Road by Ben Okri, the works in Devotion, Dreams, and Destiny span across painting, site-specific installation, experimental film, and collage, tracing a journey through a liminal terrain where the real and the supernatural, living and the dead, seen and the unseen, past and present, traditional and contemporary coalesce and unfold into what is forgotten, remembered, and what is yet to be known. The exhibition explores object and material memory, mythology, and speculative storytelling, inviting meditation and reflection on what it means to be in service of something greater than the self—the land, the ancestors, and the collective. Together, these works elicit the revelations that await us at the crossroads where we dream with devotion–glimpsing, listening, and holding the whisperings of our destiny. 

Devotion, Dreams, and Destiny is a reckoning with the memories of the past we have been asked to carry, and those from the future currently being forged in the present. This exhibition invites the viewers to open their senses and search for what is not directly visible— to reconsider what constitutes the essence of our humble and magical relationship with reality and the supernatural. It asks: What necessary reverence and remembrance are required to dream up new worlds? And how can the sacred act of devotion sustain us in a world where destiny is never fixed but continually made through the act of dreaming?

The exhibition will be on view from September 11 to October 11, 2025, with a preview during the Bromo Art Walk. Join us for the Public Opening reception (rsvp) on September 12, 2025, from 6 PM–8 PM at  847 N Howard St, Baltimore, MD 21201. Gallery hours: Wednesday–Saturday, 11 AM to 6 PM. For additional information on the exhibition, please contact the gallery at (410) 225-3130 or email info@vllager.com for all acquisition inquiries

Exhibition Text by VILLAGER