The opening months of 2026 at G.A.S. Foundation unfolded as a period of sustained artistic inquiry, material experimentation, and grounded exchange across its Lagos and Ikiṣẹ sites. Bringing together a cohort of artists and researchers working across disciplines, the January and February residencies were marked by an attentiveness to place, process, and relational knowledge, as practitioners moved between studio production, fieldwork, and community engagement. Whether rooted in storytelling, agriculture, material practice, or critical research, each residency traced distinct yet overlapping concerns with memory, ecology, embodiment, and collective futures. Taken together, these residencies reflect G.A.S. Foundation’s continued commitment to supporting practices that are both locally embedded and critically expansive, where making and thinking unfold in dialogue with environment, community, and shared infrastructures of knowledge.
Fiyin Tunde-Onadele is a multidisciplinary Nigerian artist whose practice spans mixed-media painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and digital illustration. Born in 1994, she is a self-taught artist whose work is rooted in womanism, storytelling, and the reimagining of narratives that place women at the centre of their own worlds. Fiyin’s 4-week-long residency ran from 5 January to 5 February 2026. Working across photography, painting, sculpture, and installation, she drew inspiration from the slower rhythm of the farm, developing a new body of work around Yoruba stories, womanhood, memory, and embodied experience. Her immersive research included trips to the pottery village in Ijebu called Odoralamo, and pottery studios in Lagos, as well as a trip to the Osun-Oshogbo sacred grove alongside fellow resident, Ryan Tenney. During her residency, she exhibited in a group show curated by G.A.S. Alumna Chinyere Obieze, as part of her Goethe Institut-supported Dreaming New Worlds series, titled Chord Notes: Body Rhythms in the City. The residency culminated in the development of a new body of work shaped by the environment of the farm, which she presented in Story Story on 19 February 2026, an interactive presentation that brought together residency research, reflections and works shaped by folklore, play, memory, and her experiences at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikiṣẹ. She also hosted Kite Day With The Girls on 22 January 2026, a kite making workshop for female students from St. John’s Primary School, Ikiṣẹ, exploring play, creativity, and self expression with support from staff at the school and G.A.S. Fiyin’s residency is generously supported by G.A.S. Foundation.
Story Story, an Interactive Presentation of Residency Research, Reflections, and Clay Works by Fiyin Koko
Ryan Tenney is an interdisciplinary (agri)cultural worker whose practice brings together agriculture, artistic production, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. His recent work explores the hybridisation of gourds with digital technologies and sensor systems, positioning agriculture as both a cultural and speculative framework for imagining alternative futures. Ryan’s residency at G.A.S. Farm House in Ikiṣẹ consisted of extensive hands-on knowledge exchange with local farmers working at the Ecology Green Farm, as well as herbalists, and weavers in the locality. He also developed artistic outputs that integrated painting, kinetic systems, and technological components, such as his motorized wheelbarrow, with sculptural intervention, whose functionality he developed in collaboration with farmers in Ijebu. In his cultural immersion, he also visited the Osun-Oshogbo Sacred Grove, and exhibited in a group show curated by G.A.S. Alumna Chinyere Obieze, titled Chord Notes: Body Rhythms in the City. The residency culminated in two public programmes: One Bulb At A Time on 6 March 2026, a collaborative presentation led by Jonathan Chambalin with Ryan Tenney and farmer Edward Ogani exploring agricultural innovation, craft, and decentralised energy systems; and AgroArt: (Agri)cultural Production on 12 March 2026, a presentation of Tenney’s research and reflections including live demonstrations and insights from his residency work. Ryan Tenney's residency is generously supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
AgroArt: (Agri)cultural Production, A Presentation of Research and Reflections on the Intersections of Art, Technology, and Agricultural Cultivation by Ryan Tenney
Nduka Ikechukwu is a Nigerian artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting, installation, and material-based experimentation. His work is rooted in his cultural identity and explores the relationship between materiality and human activity, especially as it relates to tradition and everyday life. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fine and Applied Arts from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he is currently pursuing his MFA. Nduka’s residency at G.A.S. Lagos ran from 19 January to 13 February 2026. During this period, he worked primarily with net and strap belts to further develop his sculptural language. Alongside studio production, he engaged with the local art community through networking, studio visits, and informal exchanges, including with full time studio artists Marcelinna Akpojotot and Olumide Onadipe. He hosted a small networking session titled Face to Face on 30 January 2026, to engage with peers in the Lagos art and culture space conversation around practice, process, and artistic growth. The residency concluded with Artist Open Studio on 12 February 2026, a presentation and walkthrough of works developed during the residency, combining a guided feedback session with a public sharing of research, experimentation, and new directions in the practice.Nduka's residency is generously supported by The Osahon Okunbo Foundation (TOOF).
Nduka Ikechukwu experimenting with fabrics in the studio during his residency.
Daniel Oluwaloni Abiodun, is a Nigerian photographer and filmmaker whose practice merges urban portraiture with narrative storytelling to document everyday life. His work explores identity, community dynamics, and the tension between tradition and modernity in contemporary Nigeria. Alongside his artistic work, he is actively engaged in youth-focused creative initiatives, supporting emerging forms of expression through workshops and community engagement. Loni’s residency at G.A.S. Farm House in Ikiṣẹ ran from 9 February to 13 March 2026, lasting just over four weeks. During this period, his fieldwork traversed neighbouring farm communities, where he documented everyday life and developed a multimedia. The residency culminated in Capturing Memories on 11 March 2026, a community-based storytelling workshop with students from St. John’s Primary School, Ikiṣẹ. The session introduced participants to photography and videography as tools for documenting personal and collective memory, combining interviews, image-making, and hands-on engagement with drone technology to encourage creative expression and self-representation. Loni's residency is generously supported by G.A.S. Foundation.
Capturing Memories, A Storytelling Workshop on Photography and Videography with Students from St. John’s Primary School, Ikiṣẹ
Ranti Bam is a British-Nigerian artist whose practice centres on sculpture, installation, and performance, working primarily with clay to explore themes of holding, presence, and becoming. Her work engages hand-built forms that move between the figurative and abstract, retaining the trace of touch as a record of the relationship between body and earth. She views clay as the most primal material, made of raw earth and water, processed by hands, and the fire of the kiln. She connects this to the concept of the primal feminine, the idea that there is an instinctive source of creation and wildness in all beings. Ranti’s residency took place from 10 to 16 February 2026, lasting only one week, during which she was based across both G.A.S. Lagos and the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikiṣẹ. Her time was mostly spent at the Osun Oshogbo Sacred Grove, where she spent four days filming to contribute towards her upcoming debut solo exhibition titled Ranti Bam: SACRED GROVES at South London Gallery. Alongside that, she was dedicated to research, drawing on the resources of the G.A.S. Library, while also travelling to the Farm House. Ranti’s residency was generously supported by South London Gallery.
Into Hearthland, 2022. Photo: Andrew Eseibo.
Jonathan Chambalin is a Lagos-based multidisciplinary artist working across installation, sculpture, performance, photography, sound, and kinetic systems. His practice engages material experimentation, speculative infrastructure, and symbolic forms from everyday Nigerian life. Jonathan’s 4-week residency ran from 16 February to 13 March 2026, during which he was based across G.A.S. Lagos and the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikiṣẹ. In addition to spending time painting, he approached the residency as a focused laboratory for research, experimentation, and exchange. He worked on kinetic wind sculptures for power generations, as well as developing his ongoing Food to Power project. His work centred on transforming agricultural by-products such as ewedu stalks into small-scale energy systems, and alongside his prototype development, he engaged directly with farming communities, revisited LASU Post Service farms, collaborated with local craftspeople in mainland Lagos, and drew on resources from the G.A.S. Library. The residency culminated in One Bulb At A Time on 6 March 2026, hosted in collaboration with Lagos Gallery Weekend, which invited students from higher education institutions in lagos to a presentation in collaboration with Edward Ogani and Ryan Tenney, which presented outcomes from Food to Power through kinetic works, demonstrations, and a panel discussion. Jonathan's residency is generously supported by Deutsche Bank.
One Bulb At A Time, a Presentation on Agricultural Innovation and Practices Led by Jonathan Chambalin with Edward Ogani and Ryan Tenney
Olutomi Kassim is a British-Nigerian academic researcher and interdisciplinary artist whose work spans scholarly writing, textile practice, and performance-based inquiry.Her practice is grounded in an interdisciplinary, practice-based research approach that explores how storytelling, visual metaphors, and collective memory can provoke dialogue around governance, social justice, and post-colonial prebendal structures. Olutomi’s residency at G.A.S. Lagos ran from 9 to 27 March 2026, lasting just under three weeks. During this period, she dedicated the first two weeks to preparing and refining materials for a three-day workshop, while also participating in events across the Lagos art scene. Drawing on resources from the G.A.S. Library, her residency aligned closely with the writing phase of her PhD research on Nigerian art activism. During this period, she made valuable connections including with Oliver Enwonwu, who served as a co facilitator for her intensive writing workshop. The residency culminated in the G.A.S. Critical Writing Workshop, held from 25 to 27 March 2026. This three-day programme brought together a cohort of emerging writers, researchers, and cultural practitioners for an intensive series of lectures, discussions, and writing exercises. Led by Olutomi and supported by invited speakers, the workshop explored art writing as a form of activism, engaging participants with postcolonial and decolonial theory, ethical considerations in cultural criticism, and practical methodologies for producing publishable work. Through collaborative learning and critical exchange, the workshop foregrounded writing as both a reflective and transformative practice within contemporary Nigerian art discourse. Olutomi's residency is generously supported by Deutsche Bank.
Participants in the G.A.S. Critical Writing Workshop, led by Olutomi Kassim