Funlola Coker
“In the Yoruba tradition, I tell stories through craft.I create stories of slippery, liminal spaces-dream-like and half-remembered, yet sacred. Through the immigrant lens, I consider how objects can transport the mind through time and nostalgia. For me, the act of chiseling, carving, and braiding are connected to memory. When contextualized into familiar forms or settings, they serve as portals. I explore personal and collective histories and submit to the power that they hold over the present and future.”
Funlola Coker is a sculptor originally from Lagos, Nigeria. Funlola’s work follows research threads in the realm of recollection, imagination, and the surreal. Embracing the literary style of biomythography, Funlola builds narrative sculptures that call on nostalgic memories and moments of the mundane held dear. Liminal spaces are explored in the context of Yoruba cosmology and Africanfuturism. Using materials and techniques based in craft, these sculptures suggest dream-like and half-remembered spaces, yet sacred. Coker’s work has been exhibited at the Fuller Craft Museum, TONE Gallery, the National Ornamental Metal Museum, including a solo exhibition at Brooklyn Metal Works. Collections include Brooklyn Metal Works and the National Ornamental Metal Museum. Coker has received awards such as the Thayer Fellowship from the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government (2022), a residency fellowship at Mass MoCA (2023) and the Wagner FoundationArtadia Boston Award (2024). Coker holds an MFA in Studio Art from the State University of New York at New Paltz, and is currently a resident artist at Boston Center for the Arts
