Gallery Inquiries: info@pulpogallery.com

Artist Inquiries: michelleve@traffic-nyc.com

Press Inquiries: Jo@culturespun.com

MÓYÒSÓRÉ MARTINS TO DEBUT FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION EXPLORING 

‘THE WATCHMAN’ CHARACTER’S EVOLUTION

Pulpo Gallery presents the artist’s first show in Germany, opening September 13 in Murnau

Munich, Germany – August 13, 2025 – Pulpo Gallery is proud to present The Watchman, the first solo exhibition to focus exclusively on the Nigerian-born, NYC-based artist Móyòsóré Martins’ most iconic and enduring creation: The Watchman.  Spanning over eight years of development, this landmark exhibition traces the evolution of a character that has become central to Martins’ practice—a spiritual sentinel born from Yoruba tradition and reimagined through the lens of urban mythology. 

As questions of cultural identity, ancestry, and belonging take on new urgency worldwide, The Watchman stands as a powerful visual response: a figure of protection, observation, and transformation that bridges continents, generations, and worlds. The show also marks the artist’s first solo show in Germany, opening Friday, September 13, 2025, at Pulpo Gallery (Obermarkt 51, 82418 Murnau am Staffelsee, Germany) and showing through October 31.

At the heart of Martins’ practice is a collision of cultures—his Yoruba spiritual roots and the visual language of contemporary American life. The Watchman character, first conceived in 2017 after Martins immigrated to the U.S., embodies this convergence. Born from traditional guardian figures and shaped by Martins’ experience working as a night watchman in the Bronx, The Watchman evolved alongside the artist’s own journey—absorbing the energy of graffiti, streetwear, and his growing collection of urban art figures by artists such as Hebru Brantley, Ron English, KAWS, and Takashi Murakami.

Over the years, The Watchman has transformed into a hybrid archetype: part ancestral protector, part pop icon, and part spiritual mirror. This character—layered with meaning and myth—is now the focus of Martins’ most ambitious exhibition to date.

“The Watchman started as a personal symbol—rooted in culture, memory, and my lived experience—and it’s grown with me,” says Martins. “It’s not just one face. It’s many. It changes depending on what I’m seeing, what I’ve survived, and what I still believe in.”

Móyò in his NY studio in front of Yoruba Watchman figures and Watchman painting photographed by Daniella Liguori ©️2024

This highly anticipated exhibition marks the first solo show fully dedicated to The Watchman and celebrates its evolution as a symbolic force across over a dozen new and recent mixed-media works.

Presented by Pulpo Gallery, founded by Katherina and Nico Zeifang in 2020, the exhibition affirms the gallery’s commitment to spotlighting globally relevant emerging artists who challenge the conventions of contemporary art. With The Watchman, Pulpo becomes the first gallery to platform a full solo presentation of this pivotal series in Martins’ career.

Pulpo Gallery’s location in Murnau has a longstanding partnership with Atwima in Ghana, with regular exchanges and cultural programs. Including the Ghana Works on Paper series in this exhibition offers a meaningful local reference point for the community and deepens the engagement around the themes of belonging, cultural heritage, and transformation central to Martins’ practice.

In April and May 2024, Moyosore Martins was invited by the Arms Around the Child Foundation to participate in an artist residency in Senya Beraku, Ghana. This residency marked a significant step in Martins’ journey of self-discovery and connection with others, bringing him back to his university roots in Ghana after nearly a decade in the U.S. It was during this time that Martins created the Ghana Works on Paper series, a collection of mixed-media studies that reflect ancestral residue and modern flux.

“These works on paper were inspired by my experience of being present at the school in Ghana—at that very moment. Seeing things beyond myself. It’s all about the things the children lacked, like water, bedsheets, plates, cups, television. The ability to step out of my own bubble and see what the kids needed and that I could make a difference,” expressed Martins.

“With ‘Watchman,’ Móyòsóré Martins brings to Germany a body of work that is both deeply rooted in his Yoruba heritage and boldly engaged with the pulse of contemporary urban culture. These paintings are at once guardians and provocateurs — charged with spiritual presence yet unapologetically immersed in the visual codes of our time. Martins does not simply bridge worlds; he forges a new iconography, one in which ancestral memory and pop-cultural immediacy coexist with striking clarity. It is an honour for PULPO GALLERY to present his first solo exhibition in Germany, offering audiences a rare encounter with an artist whose vision is as uncompromising as it is profoundly human.” – Nico Zeifang, Co-Founder Pulpo Gallery

“We’re incredibly proud to share this exhibition—Móyòsóré’s first entirely devoted to the Watchman. For him, the Watchman isn’t just a figure that appears in his work; it’s a personal guide, a spiritual presence, a way of seeing and holding space. This show invites us into that world, and it’s an honor to help bring it to life.” — Michelle Edelman/TRAFFICARTS

About the Exhibition and list of artworks on display

Highlights of the show include:

AH! (Face) (2024): a monumental portrait of open-mouthed disbelief and collective outcry

Tablets (Triptych) (2023): a symbolic meditation on time, memory, and spiritual decoding

Aura (2025): a luminous, large-scale canvas pulsing with saturated pigment and divine presence

Aura, 2025 | Oil, acrylic, aerosole, graphite on canvas | 211 x 178 cm (82 x 69 in.)

Ghana Works on Paper (I–X): gestural mixed-media studies capturing ancestral residue and modern flux

Ghana Works on Paper , 2024 | Oil, oil stick and graphite on paper | 102 x 76 cm (40 x 30 in)

Untitled works , 2025 | Oil, oil stick and graphite on canvas

Martins’ textured surfaces blend oil impasto, graphite, aerosol, clay, and hand-etched symbols. His personal iconography includes floating eyes (spiritual awareness), yellow “googly” eyes (public attention), ladders (process), and the recurring word “Why?”—a motif that invites collective introspection. The result is a visual lexicon that merges the sacred and the street, reverence and rebellion.

The Watchman as Archetype

Since its first appearance as Martins’ study in 2017, The Watchman has become a central figure in Martins' major bodies of work, including the Raw Thoughts series and the expansive AH! triptychs. The character has grown in scale and complexity—sometimes appearing as a singular figure of witness, other times as a collective chorus of faces in disbelief. This marks the first solo exhibition to trace the Watchman’s evolution—honoring its role as a spiritual anchor and symbolic force within Martins’ growing body of work.

Described by curators as a “spiritual sentinel,” The Watchman represents not only personal evolution but a collective longing for protection, clarity, and truth. It is at once a reflection of the artist and a mirror held to the world—a character forged from memory, myth, and the migration between continents and identities.

For more information on the upcoming show, please visit the gallery at https://www.pulpogallery.com/exhibitions/48-moyosore-martins-watchman/overview/.

Exhibition Details

Title: The Watchman
Artist: Móyòsóré Martins
Venue: Pulpo Gallery
Address: Obermarkt 51, 82418 Murnau am Staffelsee, Germany
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 13, 2025

Dates: September 13 – October 31, 2025

About the Artist

Móyòsóré Martins (b. 1986, Lagos) is a self-taught, mixed-media artist whose work explores identity, spiritual symbolism, and transformation. Combining his Yoruba heritage with a contemporary visual lexicon rooted in street culture, Martins creates layered canvases that function as both relics and reinventions. He lives and works in the Bronx, New York.

About Pulpo Gallery

Founded in 2020 by Katherina and Nico Zeifang, Pulpo Gallery is a contemporary art space located in Murnau am Staffelsee, Germany. The gallery champions emerging and mid-career artists who challenge conventions and reflect the evolving cultural landscape. With a global curatorial perspective, Pulpo Gallery provides a platform for bold voices across disciplines and geographies.

About TRAFFICARTS

TRAFFICARTS is a contemporary art advisory and artist management agency based in New York. Known for curating high-impact international exhibitions and representing a roster of boundary-pushing artists, TRAFFICARTS bridges the art world and the global cultural marketplace through strategic placements and bespoke career development. TRAFFICARTS represents the artist exclusively worldwide.

About CULTURESPUN

CULTURESPUN is an independent, “anti-agency” PR firm founded by Joanna Martins. Based in Manhattan, CULTURESPUN specializes in earned media, narrative positioning, and press strategy for artists, brands, and thought leaders who defy category. CULTURESPUN has worked across art, design, fashion, beauty, and activism—shaping stories that resonate with cultural depth and editorial impact.

A selection of 2025 Untitled canvases: densely layered, raw, and deeply autobiographical Martins’s works are marked by dense oil impasto, aerosol, graphite, and scribbled symbols—a hybrid visual language that merges tribal altars and pop culture toys, nodding to artists like KAWS, Murakami, and Hebru Brantley. His recurring symbols—such as floating eyes (spiritual awareness), yellow “googly” eyes (public attention), and ladders (process)—form a visual lexicon both sacred and subversive.