Lawal Mayowa is a contemporary artist from Ijebu-Ode, now based in Lagos, one of the most visually overwhelming cities in the world. He is a fine arts photographer, model, and digital collagist who has built his practice around a single material: Ankara fabric. He calls himself Alankara. The name contains both the material and the stance. Tradition as foundation, not as constraint.
He grew up in the science stream. He drew comics in the back of his notebooks anyway. His teachers scolded him. He continued, even in his subconscious. His brother was a photographer, and Lawal was his muse from time to time. Those two facts together explain almost everything about the work he makes now: the use of objects and muses, the comfort in front of and behind a camera, the way his images feel simultaneously staged and found.
His digital collage work synthesises traditional Ankara patterns with photographic subjects rendered in high contrast, creating images that feel like they belong to a visual culture that has not been fully named yet. He is still on a quest to figure out who he is. The work is the record of that quest.
