MÓYÒSÓRÈ MARTINS EMERGES ON THE GLOBAL STAGE AT THE 61ST VENICE BIENNALE 2026
New York, NY – March 4, 2026 – National Pavilion of The Republic of Sierra Leone and ECOWAS
Preview: May 6–8, 2026
Exhibition: May 9 – November 22, 2026
His inclusion in the Republic of Sierra Leone Pavilion represents a historic and forward-looking moment of cultural exchange, situating his practice within an international dialogue examining identity, diaspora, futurity, and the evolving role of contemporary African artists within global cultural narratives.
Participation in the Venice Biennale represents one of the most significant institutional milestones of Martins’ career and affirms his growing recognition as a leading voice among a new generation of globally engaged contemporary artists.
—-Moyosore Martins’ work operates at a heightened visual register. While the exhibition considers how artistic meaning can resonate through shifting emotional frequencies, Martins amplifies that resonance through a language of repetition, scale, and accumulation. Figures, symbols, and fragments of text—often anchored by the recurring Watchman—are reiterated across the canvas, generating a rhythmic visual intensity. The repeated imagery builds momentum until the work feels almost sonic in its force, as if the message is being projected outward from the surface of the painting. In Martins’ hands, repetition becomes a form of amplification, transforming the canvas into a charged field where image and word converge to create an experience of urgency, immediacy, and impact.
WORLDS ON THE WAY TO EXISTENCE
The Republic of Sierra Leone presents itself at the Venice Biennale as one of Africa’s leading guiding nations, currently holding the presidency of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), offering the international community an image of an Africa that is stable, secure, and forward-looking. The President, Julius Maada Bio, has strengthened in just a few years the international role of the ECOWAS, promoting regional cooperation, multilateral dialogue, and cultural initiatives aimed at enhancing Africa’s human and artistic heritage. His leadership has made Sierra Leone not only a stable and secure country for the investment, but also, a center of innovation, culture, and African diplomacy. Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, the Country today stands out as a space of cultural openness, creative vitality, an international dialogue, where its natural, human, and cultural heritage is expressed within a context of stability, safety, reliability, and hospitality. Sierra Leone’s first participation at the Venice Biennale is part of a long tradition of relations, friendship, and exchanges that have connected Africa and Italy for centuries.
The Pavilion of Sierra Leone, sponsored by ECOWAS, is conceived as a space of active presence, where contemporary art does not merely narrate, but becomes a shared language, a tool for building and connecting. It is a cultural bridge between Italy and Africa, historic and enduring, renewed today through projects of dialogue and cooperation among the nations of West Africa. Fatima Maada Bio, Commissioner of the National Pavilion, who has championed the international presentation of Sierra Leonean artists at a time when contemporary African art is gaining increasing global recognition. A figure of continental stature, Fatima Maada Bio embodies a cultural leadership capable of uniting a modern, forward-looking vision across Africa, elevating culture to a tool for cohesion, harmony, and dialogue between generations, nations, and continents. The Honorary President of the West African Pavilion at the Venice Biennale is H.R.H. Prince Kevin Nyerere, long committed to strengthening cultural relations between Africa and Europe.
The curatorial project brings together artists from Sierra Leone, artists from ECOWAS member states, and Italian and international artists, creating an ongoing cultural dialogue between Italy and Africa. The works on display do not illustrate predefined narratives: they activate relationships, stimulate shared visions, and generate a space where creativity and collaboration engage freely.
The exhibition space is designed as a fluid and harmonious environment, where works interact without hierarchy, suggesting a vision of a cultural community founded on cooperation, trust, and balance. Visitors are invited to engage directly with the works, perceiving their essence through sight, listening, and presence.
ANNOUNCING A MAJOR NEW CHAPTER FOR MOYOSORE MARTINS: MILAN SPRING SOLO EXHIBITION AND VENICE BIENNALE 2026
Solo Exhibition at Upsilon Gallery, Milan, to open at the end of April through end of June, 2026, Coinciding with 61st International Venice Biennale with the Pavilion of Republic of Sierra Leone. Entitled, In Minor Keys, by Koyo Kouoh – will run from Saturday 9 May to Sunday 22 November 2026 (preview 6, 7, 8 May) at the Peggy Guggenheim High School
Milan / Venice — April 2026
Moyosore Martins enters a major new chapter in 2026 with a solo exhibition at Upsilon Gallery in Milan, opening at the end of April. The exhibition will coincide with the opening weeks of the Venice Biennale 2026, where Martins will be featured in the Pavilion representing Sierra Leone and ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), positioning his practice within a broader international and diasporic context.
The Milan presentation follows a year of profound personal growth and artistic recalibration for Martins. 2025 marked a period of intensified introspection and transformation, a process that has translated into a new body of work characterized by heightened emotional clarity, formal refinement, and renewed conceptual urgency. Central to this evolving language is his seminal recurring figure, The Watchman, through which Martins externalizes inner psychological states of vigilance, vulnerability, and self-recognition.
Together, the Milan solo exhibition and Venice Biennale presentation mark a pivotal consolidation of Martins’ artistic voice on the international stage. The dual visibility across Milan and Venice situates his work within two of Europe’s most influential contemporary art contexts, reinforcing his growing recognition as one of the compelling painters of his generation to emerge from the African diaspora.
Upsilon Gallery’s exhibition will offer a focused exploration of Martins’ recent work, tracing the evolution of his visual language while foregrounding the psychological and symbolic dimensions that define his practice. The Venice Biennale Pavilion will further extend this dialogue, situating his work within a broader geopolitical and cultural framework and amplifying the transnational resonances of his themes.
These upcoming milestones reflect both an inward reckoning and an outward expansion—signaling a defining moment in Martins’ career as his work enters an increasingly global conversation on identity, consciousness, and contemporary subjectivity.
Another Defining Inflection Point
This sequence of institutional exhibitions across Ghana, Milan, and Venice represents not simply an exhibition cycle, but a pivotal inflection point within Martins’ career — marking the maturation of a singular artistic voice entering sustained global institutional visibility.
These presentations reflect both an inward deepening and outward expansion: the continued evolution of Martins’ symbolic visual language alongside his expanding presence across the international collector, gallery, and museum landscape.
About MÓYÒSÓRÉ MARTINS
MÓYÒSÓRÉ MARTINS is a Nigerian-born, New York-based contemporary artist whose work explores psychological states, spiritual awareness, and the tension between inner life and external identity.
His practice is defined by a raw, layered visual language that blends American pop influence, graffiti aesthetics, and Yoruba symbolic traditions. His recurring figures — including The Watchman, the mouth motif, and expressive abstracted forms — function as archetypal symbols of presence, protection, and consciousness.
His works are characterized by intentional material distress, including scratching, layering, erasure, and reconstruction, reinforcing themes of transformation, vulnerability, and lived experience.
Martins has exhibited internationally across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and his works are held in prominent private and institutional collections.
As his practice continues to expand across painting, sculpture, collectible design, and installation, Martins is emerging as one of the defining contemporary artists of his generation.