Nigerian artist Modupeola Fadugba holds degrees in Chemical Engineering, Economics and Education from the University of Delaware and Harvard University. This impressive educational background has become the foundation on which she has sought to build her artistic practice, creating works that speak to a variety of political, economic, and social issues. Fadugba employs a multidisciplinary approach to her practice, using an eclectic mix of mediums – including fire – to create works that urge us to consider broader geopolitical and socioeconomic questions. As a Nigerian woman, Fadugba uses girls and women from Lagos as both models and primary sources of inspiration, representing them in ways that challenge conventional attitudes towards African women.
At Face Value V is part of Fadugba’s ‘heads or tails’ series. Started in 2014, Fadugba wanted to create works that reflect the comparative dearth of female figures represented on both the Nigerian naira and wider global currency. Incorporating her signature ‘burn’ marks, we see intricately rendered Black women on the face of these coins, disrupting the usual position of men as the symbol of wealth, and affording Fadugba’s subjects positions of social hierarchy and monetary value.
Fadugba has held numerous international solo exhibitions in Lagos, Nigeria; Accra, Ghana; Dakar, Senegal; Paris, France; and London, UK. Her work is included in numerous international collections such as Minneapolis Institute of Art; Smithsonian Institute of African Art, Washington, D.C.; and Sindika Dokolo Foundation, Angola.
