In Personal News: A Beautiful Review of my Debut Art Exhibition 🎨

In late March 2026, I debuted as an artist at the REBIRTH Exhibition, hosted by Didi Museum Foundation. The full title is REBIRTH: Weaving Worlds of Forgotten Faiths, Fractured Realities and Gender Journeys, and I exhibited alongside a second artist called C.O. Kola-Lawal.

This was my first series of 8 artworks, and one of the underlying messages they contain is the eternal rhythm of destruction and rebirth as reflected in the cyclical nature of human history. This series is guided by the research carried out for my first book Nigerian Gods.

I experimented with geometric art, combined with motifs sourced from Nigerian culture and the traditional religions of the Isoko, Ìtsẹkírì, Urhobo and Yorùbá ethnic groups – my heritage – using the ancient framework of mandalas. Mandalas are Buddhist devotional images taken as symbols of an ideal universe and they come in many forms, often recreated through painting, 3D models and powdered sand.

I chose to work in 2D, with graphite, clay, pigment and inks, and I chose mandalas to deliver my artistic message because they are symbolic representations of wholeness, timelessness and unity. They are also visual representations of how humanity’s future is interwoven with respect for Nature, a fact that is often forgotten as we witness environmental destruction in Nigeria and across the world.

I received some truly deep and meaningful feedback on my exhibition, but one of the reviews stood out, because it came from someone I respect and look up to in terms of creativity and open-mindedness. His name is Ferdinand (Ferdy) Adimefe and it is my pleasure to share his review with you.

Ferdy’s Review

I stepped into “Rebirth: Weaving Worlds of Forgotten Faiths, Fractured Realities & Gender Journeys”… and walked out with a deeper reverence for what it means to create from the soul of a people.

At the center of it is Kome Otobo, and what she is building is not just art.

It is language. It is memory. It is restoration. It is advocacy.

Kome’s work carries a rare intelligence, both precise and expansive. You feel her discipline in the geometry, the symmetry, the intentionality, but you also feel something older, deeper, almost ancestral moving through it.

She draws from across worlds; Isoko, Ìtsẹkírì, Urhobo, Yorùbá into a living conversation about: • identity and becoming • loss and restoration • the tension between perfection and imperfection

This is not art for decoration. This is art for awakening.

Kome Otobo’s work feels like a bridge, between cultures, between histories, between the inner and outer worlds. I took two friends Josh Egesi and Milton Tutu, as well as my 3 boys. I want to them start interacting with depth early enough.

If you’re in Lagos, take the time. Sit with the work. Let it speak. Some exhibitions you attend. Some you experience. This is one of them.”

I’ll share other reviews shortly, but I absolutely wanted to start with this one. I’m sure you can understand why.