Walk through the busy streets of Lagos and you canโt miss it: piles of rusty nails by half-built walls, twisted pipes dumped on the roadside, old bolts and bent spoons just lying there, forgotten. Most people pass by without a second glance. Just junk, right? Stuff meant for the dump. But Olu Amoda sees something else entirely. Where others see trash, he sees the beginnings of something powerful. He grabs those castaways and turns them into scrap-metal sculptures that speak to life in Nigeria, and honestly, they connect with people all over the world.
Amoda was born in 1959 in Warri, right in the heart of the Niger Delta. Over the last thirty years, heโs made a name for himself as one of Nigeriaโs top contemporary sculptors. He works with whatever he can find: nails, bolts, pipes, spoons, and scrap metal plates. Sometimes his work looks like people, sometimes animals or plants, but no matter the shape, he never shies away from big topics: politics, race, consumer culture, and inequality. His art isnโt just loved at home. You will find his sculptures in major galleries from New York to Geneva.
Discover how Olu Amoda transforms Lagos scrap metal, rusty nails, bolts, and spoons into powerful sculptures addressing Nigerian society and global themes.
From Goldsmith’s Son to Sculptor
Growing up, Olu Amodaโs dad worked as a goldsmith. Thereโs a kind of poetry in that contrast. His father shaped precious metals into fine jewellery for those who could afford it. Amoda, on the other hand, dug through what everyone else abandoned. He saw beauty in castoffs.
He learnt the basics of sculpture at Auchi Polytechnic in 1983, how to shape, mould, and build. But things really changed when he started using the discarded metal scattered all around Nigeriaโs cities. After graduation, Amoda started teaching sculpture and drawing at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos. He stuck with it for over thirty years, right up until his retirement in 2019. Teaching sharpened his skills and gave him the chance to inspire a whole new group of Nigerian artists.
In 2009, he took things even further, heading to the U.S. for a masterโs in Fine Arts at Georgia Southern University. That experience blew open his world, introduced new ideas and new ways of looking at sculpture, and gave his work a bigger stage.
The Philosophy of Waste and Value
At the heart of Amodaโs art is a simple question: what actually happens to all the stuff we throw away? Lagos is growing fast. New buildings seem to pop up overnight. People buy more, toss more, and move on just as quickly.
Nigeria churns out millions of tonnes of solid waste every year; most of it is never collected or recycled. Metal scraps from construction sites and homes pile up everywhere. Amoda digs through old buildings and scrapyards, searching for nails, rods, pipes, anything he can use. He welds these pieces into shapes that sometimes look familiar and strange and always make you look twice.
By turning junk into art, Amoda joins a wave of Nigerian artists who see possibility in what others call rubbish. Sure, this fits into bigger conversations about sustainability and reusing materials, but Amoda pushes it further. He doesnโt just recycle metal; he recycles meaning. He takes objects tied to failure or abandonment and gives them a new story, one people canโt ignore.
Mastering Metal: Technical Excellence
Turning scrap metal into art isn’t just about having a good idea; it takes real technical chops. Metal’s a whole different beast compared to clay or wood. You have to know how to cut, bend, heat, and weld it. That’s where Amoda stands out. He’s nailed these skills and found a way to bring together classic sculptural principles with the raw personality of his materials.
He starts by hunting for the right pieces. Not every chunk of scrap cuts. He studies each one, how thick it is, the shape, its condition, and if it’s got something special. Rusty nails? Perfect for texture and lines. Bolts? They become joints or little details. Big, flat plates? Those are the backbone of a figure or the heart of a big installation.
With his welding gear, Amoda fuses these bits, building everything from recognisable shapes to more abstract, mysterious forms. His sculptures have this lyrical quality โ those lines, the textures, and the mix of tones; it all feels intentional and alive. He doesn’t hide the welds, either. The seams and the joints, they are right there, part of the story, not tucked away.
Amoda leaves the metal’s history on display. You see rust, scratches, and scars from years of use; they all stay. Instead of scrubbing these marks away, he lets them speak. The past lives of these fragments peek through, weaving old stories into new creations.
Sunflower: International Breakthrough
Everythjewellery for those who could afford them when his piece “Sunflower” won top honours at one of Africa’s biggest art events, the Grand Prix Lรฉopold Sรฉdar Senghor at Dak’Art, the 11th Biennial of Contemporary African Art in Dakar, Senegal. This prize, named for Senegal’s first president and a legendary poet, is a massive deal in the world of African contemporary art.
He built “Sunflower” out of old nails and spoons dug up from Lagos junkyards. The sunflower itself? Not just a pretty face. Amoda saw it as a symbol. In his words, “The sunflower comprises several small flowers, and when they come together they glow under the sun.” For him, it spoke to the power of unity, interdependence, and collective strength, qualities he feels are crucial for Africa, but often overlooked or distorted by Western media.
“I’m trying to look at the positive signs of the interdependence of Africans โฆ because the interpretation of Africa is such that it’s conflict and famine,” Amoda said. With this one sculpture, he flipped the narrative. Instead of focusing on struggle, he offered a vision of organic beauty and shared growth. And by building it from discarded industrial metal, he created this striking contrast: the mechanical and the natural, the individual and the group.
Winning that prize elevated Amoda’s profile globally. Suddenly, his work began appearing in significant collections and exhibitions worldwide. For Nigerian sculpture, which usually gets overshadowed by painting in the art world, Amoda’s success marked a real turning point.
Engaging Nigerian Themes and Global Issues
Amoda never shies away from the hard questions facing Nigeria. His art goes straight to the heart of issues like corruption, inequality, violence, gender, and the rapid pace of change around us. Nigerian audiences feel it deeply, but his work doesn’t get lost on viewers elsewhere, either; those themes hit home for many people.
Take his “Rite of Passage” show. He replaced the actors in the plays “Ruined” by Lynn Nottage and “Death and the King’s Horseman” by Wole Soyinka with sculptures made from old metal scraps, rather than staging them as usual. There’s something raw about the result. The stories resonate with you in a unique, profound, and visceral way. That was the point.
Then came his “Fringe” series, where Amoda started picking at our digital lives. Privacy, surveillance, the way technology creeps into everything โ he doesn’t let any of that slide by unnoticed. He says privacy’s basically gone these days, thanks to spy agencies and cybercriminals. In the show, you see figures hunched over typewriters โ a throwback, sure, but also a statement. It’s a kind of pushback against modern surveillance, reaching for something more private.
Lately, Amoda’s work has got even tougher, delving into complex subjects. In “Carte Blanche,” he takes on banditry, state executions, and brutal violence, the kind of things that haunt Nigeria right now. Sculptures bring these stories into the room with you. They are physical, impossible to ignore, and they make you stop and think in a way a photo or a painting just doesn’t.
International Recognition and Residencies
Amoda’s voice isn’t just heard in Nigeria. He’s taken his work all over, from residencies at Villa Arson in France, the Bag Factory in Johannesburg, Appalachian State University in North Carolina, to the New York Design Museum. Each place gave him new tools to play with and got him talking to artists from every corner.
He’s shown his work at some of the world’s big names, the Victoria and Albert Museum in the UK, the Museum of Art and Design in New York, Skoto Gallery, and even WIPO in Switzerland. Public museums, private galleries, international organisations, he fits in everywhere, but never loses that Nigerian heartbeat.
These days, Amoda splits his life between Lagos and Atlanta. America’s art world has paid attention, too. He won the 2022 Hudgens Prize; $50,000, and big recognition for what he’s brought to the visual arts. Between the American awards and the ones from Africa, it’s clear: his work connects with all kinds of people, but it never loses its roots.
Riverside Art and Design Studios
He’s not just focused on his career. With Riverside Art and Design Studios in Lagos, Amoda’s built something bigger. As founder and chief exec, he’s made a space that’s more than just a studio. It’s a place to design, build, and teach.
Riverside is a hive of sculptural creativity. You will find welding, metalwork, and projects on a scale most artists only dream about. It’s also where young artists come to learn, watching Amoda at work and figuring out their paths with metal and mixed media.
The studio doesn’t just make art to hang on a wall, either. Some of their projects are functional, such as doors, windows, and iron grilles. It’s art you can use, rooted in the African tradition where beauty and function go hand in hand. And by taking on these commissions, the studio stays sustainable, so the creative work can keep going.
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The Symbolism of Scrap Metal
Scrap metal carries a lot more weight than just environmental baggage. It’s tangled up with ideas about modern life, considerable industry, and progress โ big, complicated words, especially in Africa. Metal goods often mean imports, foreign tech, and all those lopsided global relationships that linger after colonialism. You can see the fragility of these development models when they collapse or disintegrate.
Then there’s rust. You see it everywhere in Amoda’s work, standing in for decay, neglect, and time relentlessly moving forward. Rust serves as a visual shortcut for remnants of the past in a rapidly changing place like Nigeria. But it’s not just a sad story. Rust brings its own beauty: deep oranges and browns, rough textures, and almost natural-looking patterns. Amoda leans into that, pulling out something striking from what looks like pure ruin.
Metal itself is a demanding customer. It’s rigid and stubborn; it doesn’t bend easily, perfect for showing strength, endurance, or even just plain rigidity. But get it hot enough, work it the right way, and you can coax it into all sorts of curves and flowing lines. That push and pull, toughness versus transformation, adds a real charge to Amoda’s figures and forms.
Legacy and Continuing Influence
Amoda’s international success raises big questions about how local artists fit into the broader art world. When someone breaks through globally, it brings real benefits: shows abroad, sales to collectors, spots at major events, and a whole new audience. All that can change an artist’s life: more money, more freedom, more chances to try new things.
But Amoda’s work stays grounded. He uses metal straight from Lagos, tackles Nigerian issues, and weaves in local stories and traditions. At the same time, his art holds its own in the broader conversation of contemporary art; his ideas, materials, and skills stand up anywhere.
His rise has a ripple effect back home. It proves that sculpture is an absolute path for young Nigerian artists: you can start with what’s around you and end up on the world stage. Collectors, galleries, and museums are taking notice, giving Nigerian art the respect and support it deserves.
For younger artists, Amoda’s journey isn’t just inspiring; it’s proof. You can make something powerful out of what’s close at hand. Sculpture matters just as much as any other form. And art that’s rooted in local reality can still speak to people everywhere.
Conclusion
Olu Amoda’s story starts in Warri, where he grew up as a goldsmith’s son, and is taken all the way to the world’s top art stages. It’s not just his own journey; it’s a window into what contemporary African art can do, how artists reinvent old materials, and how sculpture tackles issues that matter right now.
Instead of picking up fresh, shiny materials, Amoda grabs rusty nails, bent bolts, and tossed-out spoons, the stuff most people ignore or throw away. With these, he pulls off a creative magic. Every scrape and dent tells a story, and somehow, these bits of scrap come together as striking works of art that catch eyes in big-name galleries.
When Amoda turns battered nails into flowers or rusty metal into bold human figures, he’s showing us something bigger: endings aren’t always the end. With enough imagination and effort, even the most overlooked things can carry profound meaning.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who is Olu Amoda?
He’s a Nigerian sculptor, born in 1959, best known for turning scrap metal, rusty nails, bolts, pipes, and spoons into bold sculptures that dig into social and political issues.
2. What materials does Olu Amoda use?
He collects scrap metal from all over Lagos, building sites, scrapyards, and even the street. Think rusty nails, old bolts, pipes, spoons, metal plates, forge off-cuts, the works.
3. What major awards has he won?
He won the Grand Prix Lรฉopold Sรฉdar Senghor at Dak’Art 2014, the Delta State Honour as Most Innovative Sculptor, and the 2022 Hudgens Prize (worth $50,000).
4. What was the Sunflower sculpture about?
Amoda built it from old nails and spoons. It stood for African unity and for people’s dependence on one another, challenging the notion that Africa is defined solely by conflict or famine.
5. Where has his work been exhibited?
You can find his work at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Art and Design in New York, Skoto Gallery, the WIPO Headquarters in Switzerland, and at many other international venues.
6. What themes does Amoda explore?
He digs into politics, race, conflict, consumerism, inequality, privacy, surveillance, state violence, and how digital technology is changing everyday life.
7. What are Riverside Art and Design Studios?
It’s a space in Yaba, Lagos, that Amoda set up. It’s where he works, mentors others, takes on commissions, and brings sculptors and designers together.
8. What is his educational background?
Amoda studied sculpture at Auchi Polytechnic (graduating in 1983), earned his MFA from Georgia Southern University in 2009, and taught at Yaba College of Technology from 1987 to 2019.
