Motunrayo Akinola
The one about the thing under the bridge
13.09.2025 – 13.12.2025
We are delighted to present the first major institutional commission by Motunrayo Akinola on the occasion of the inaugural Bexhill Art Weekender on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th September 2025. This commission represents a new site-specific work titled The one about the thing under the bridge that continues the artist’s exploration of space, belonging, and the invisible threads shaped by migration, faith, and power. Through measured interventions; sculptural, architectural, and from drawing, Akinola refines expansive, “maximalist” ideas into forms that grapple with presence, resistance, and control.
The exhibition’s title riffs on the phrase water under the bridge, a saying often used to render past experience irrelevant. Akinola subtly challenges this, drawing attention to what gets discarded, overlooked, or smoothed over in collective memory. His work insists on presence: of material, of memory, and of bodies negotiating space. Each element encourages us to consider what lies beneath, and what refuses to be forgotten.
This exhibition has been generously supported by Arts Council England , Rother District Council, De La Warr Pavilion, Talent Accelerator, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government.
Motunrayo Akinola holds a 1st Class BA (Hons) in Fine Arts from the University of East London, 2017 and completed his postgraduate diploma at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2023. Recent residencies include; the South London Gallery Postgraduate Residency, London, 2024, High House Artist Residency, Norfolk, 2024.
Recent exhibitions include: Solo - Palmer Gallery, London (2025); Bonnington Gallery , Nottingham (2025); BLANK, Cape Town (2024); South London Gallery, London (2024); Group - Eastside Projects, Birmingham (2025); Invested Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town (2025); India Art Fair, New Delhi (2025); Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2025); Messums, London (2025); Indigo+Madder, London (2024), Frieze London, London (2024); and Mirror Gallery, Plymouth (2024).