ART in the PARK: Memory in the Material by Olu Amoda
Date and Time
- Tue, Apr 22, 2025 - Wed, Jun 18, 2025
Location
Woodruff Park
91 Peachtree St NW
Memory in the Material is a series of sculptures by Olu Amoda inviting viewers to reflect on how memory is preserved and reimagined through assemblage. At the heart of this process is quilting—the tender act of joining fragments, and stitching stories into layered compositions that speak to memory, continuity, and repair.
Through the weaving of disparate elements, Amoda reveals the emotional and cultural resonance embedded in the objects we leave behind. Memory in the Material exists as a public meditation—on the histories these materials hold, the shifting nature of identity, and the trends of time towards transformation.
Olu Amoda is a dual citizen of Nigeria and the United States, and an artist whose sculptural language, developed over the past four decades, is defined by its distinctive character and material beauty. Working across sculpture, murals, furniture design, and multimedia, Amoda is best known for repurposing industrial debris—rusty nails, metal plates, bolts, pipes, and rods—into intricate works that explore the layered realities of contemporary life. His human, animal, and abstract forms reflect on themes such as identity, conflict, consumerism, and economic disparity.
Amoda earned a degree in sculpture from Auchi Polytechnic in Nigeria and a Master of Fine Arts from Georgia Southern University in the United States. His work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum (UK), Museum of Art and Design (New York), Skoto Gallery (New York), Didi Museum (Nigeria), WIPO Headquarters (Switzerland), and Art Twenty One (Nigeria). He has also completed residencies at Villa Arson (France), The Bag Factory (South Africa), Appalachian State University (North Carolina), and the New York Design Museum.
Memory in the Material is by Olu Amoda, presented as part of the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District’s ART in the PARK series, and curated and produced by Dashboard.
