Nigerian painter Oluwasemilore Delano’s first New York presentation at The Armory Show
Adegbola Gallery (Lagos, Nigeria) will present the “life of a few,” a new body of paintings by Nigerian artist Oluwasemilore Delano, as a solo presentation at The Armory Show, taking place from 24 to 27 September 2026 at the Javits Center in New York.
Working between Lagos and London, Delano explores the porous boundaries between body, landscape, spirit and material. the life of a few continues her engagement with cows, which she considers autonomous bodies negotiating existence and carrying memory, labour, vulnerability and instinct. Drawn from encounters and observations at Oko Oba abattoir in Lagos, the paintings depict animals with distinct identities, purposes and fates. Through their skeletons, scars and taut muscles, Delano considers embodiment, mortality and our relationship to the environments we inhabit.
“From our earliest exhibitions with Oluwasemilore in Lagos, we recognised an artist of exceptional promise,” Gallery Director Kayode Adegbola said. “Presenting her first New York solo presentation at The Armory Show is therefore a significant milestone for both the artist and the gallery, and we are excited to introduce this compelling new body of work to an international audience.”
Delano works with oil paint, charcoal, wood, concrete and metal, allowing their histories and physical qualities to shape the work. These qualities remain visible: the grain of the wood forms part of the image, charcoal retains its relationship to fire, and metal carries weight, industry and memory.
Growing up in Nigeria, Delano became interested in the ways objects are adapted, repaired and transformed through necessity. This material consciousness is central to her practice. Image and support develop together, with each material carrying its own history and behaviour.
“I have become increasingly interested in animals as another way of thinking about ourselves,” says Delano. “The cow’s skin, however thick, tells the truth.”
The presentation forms part of Adegbola Gallery’s wider programme connecting Nigerian modernism with contemporary practice and supporting artists through sustained research, exhibitions, residencies and international presentations.
About Oluwasemilore Delano
Oluwasemilore Delano is a Nigerian artist working between Lagos and London. Through painting, sculpture and printmaking, her practice considers the figure as a site of perception and explores the relationships between bodies, landscapes, materials and cultural memory.
Delano works with materials including oil paint, charcoal, wood, concrete and metal, allowing their physical properties and histories to guide the development of each work. Her recent practice has focused on cows, using the animal body to consider instinct, vulnerability, labour, mortality and the porous relationship between the self and its environment.
Delano completed a BA in Architecture at King’s College, University of Cambridge, in 2020, and an MFA with distinction at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, in 2024. Her recent solo exhibitions include between slumped shoulders held the moon in waiting, TAFETA, London, 2026; the back of the sky, Fleet House, London, 2025; and Retelling Retrospect, King’s College Art Rooms, Cambridge, 2019.
About Adegbola Gallery
Adegbola Gallery is a Lagos-based gallery connecting Nigerian modernism with contemporary practice. Its programme presents artists whose work is research-led and materially rigorous, with particular attention to questions of space, history, perception and cultural inheritance.
The gallery supports artists at key moments in their development through solo exhibitions, curated group presentations, residencies, scholarship and international art fairs. Alongside its contemporary programme, Adegbola Gallery foregrounds the work of 20th-century Nigerian modernists whose practices remain foundational to the country’s contemporary art history.
