Public art, especially outdoor sculptures, became popular in Nigeria and people began to take an interest in public art towards the end of the twentieth century. According to Kalilu and Akintonde (2013: 145), “the use of outdoor sculpture for environmental beautification had become commonplace in the 1980s.” While the first such sculptures were created for major cities like Lagos, by the 1970s public art was being created for towns and cities in more rural regions. In this article, I will explore several examples from the Òkè-Ògùn region of Ọ̀yọ́ State.
Prior to this period, kings’ palaces, shrines, and market squares were public places where visual culture such as wood carvings, stone sculptures, and wall paintings were viewed (Filani 2003). Before contact with the West and the imported culture and ideas that came with that, such as the introduction of Christianity and Islam, installations of ephemeral art in open...