Artists: Shinique Smith - Marcellina Akpojotor

As Rele celebrates its 10th anniversary and prepares for Frieze Los Angeles, the gallery presents Social Fabrics: Magic & Memories, a landmark exhibition featuring artists Shinique Smith and Marcellina Akpojotor. Through vibrant textiles and mixed-media works, both artists transform found fabrics into evocative embodiments of culture, history, and self-expression—revealing the power of cloth to carry personal stories, collective memories, and even the spiritual residue of human experience.

Lagos-based Marcellina Akpojotor employs a distinctive collage technique, pulling apart and reconfiguring boldly patterned fragments of Ankara fabric. Using found material sourced from local tailors, she examines the histories and lived experiences of women, creating works that honor intergenerational resilience, identity formation, and the preservation of cultural heritage. Her practice engages with textiles as mnemonic devices—connecting past and present, old wisdom and new knowledge—and speaks to the crucial, often undervalued, labor of women in shaping memory and community.

Smith, based in Los Angeles, is recognized for her monumental fabric sculptures and dynamic collaged paintings comprising vintage textiles, garments, ribbons, and found objects. Incorporating materials collected over the last twenty years - from family, friends, and travels, Smith’s totemic work with the magical and the mundane interrogates themes of belonging, social ritual, and the significance of repurposed materials; exploring how once cherished things that are discarded or considered surplus retain personal and collective history.

This presentation features sculpture from Smith's recently celebrated solo exhibition Parade at The Ringling Museum—including Mitumba Deity II, displayed on her grandmother’s dresser.

As the artists tie, stitch, collage, paint, dye, and layer their textiles, they pay homage to lineages of labor while acknowledging cloth’s power to unite people across continents and generations. Since its inception in Lagos in 2015, Rele Gallery has devoted itself to reshaping the global narrative of contemporary African art. Marking Rele Gallery’s 10th anniversary, Social Fabrics: Magic & Memories exemplifies the gallery’s continued mission to champion cutting-edge African and Diasporic art, expand cross-cultural narratives, and foster meaningful engagement with local and international communities.