Lola Ayisha Ogbara: Marked
@ Tala
1644 W Chicago Ave, #1, Chicago, IL 60622
Opening Thursday, May 22nd, from 6PM - 9PM
On view through Sunday, July 20th
Tala is proud to present 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒅, by Chicago-based artist Lola Ayisha Ogbara. Excavating the exhibition space’s latent potential as a site of rememory, Ogbara constructs an immersive environment of haunting and collective remembering. Through ceramic object-making, sound, and scent, she engages the philosophical poetics of the scar as both a visual language of fugitivity and imprint of resistance.
Drawing from the 19th-century folktale 𝘛𝘢𝘳 𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘺 , as told in the 𝘜𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘶𝘴 stories, Ogbara considers the tale as an allegory for the history of Black survival through subversive wit, where cunning and flight become strategies of survival. Reflecting on these tactics of evasion as a dual narrative of movement and displacement, Ogbara’s newest body of work, 𝘓𝘶𝘬𝘢𝘭𝘢, invokes the legacy of Afrocartography—from the Indigenous Lukala maps of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the woven routes embedded in braids and quilts throughout the African diaspora in America. As if leaving a trail of footsteps through the gallery, Ogbara creates her own semiotic map-making language to lead viewers through her own personal history while speculating a collective path forward.
Accompanying the exhibition is a set of fragrances and candles by the artist in collaboration with Amanda Harth (@universeofharth) of Universe of Harth. Grounded in scent’s powerful ability to trigger memory and evoke strong emotional responses, Ogbara’s olfactory compositions are inspired by the histories of three once-thriving Black communities—now lost or submerged: Seneca Village, beneath Central Park (NY); Oscarville, now Lake Lanier (GA); and Kowaliga, now Lake Martin (AL). Drawing from the native flora and key industries that once sustained these places, both Ogbara and Harth honor their legacies by immersing visitors in sensory portraits of each community at its height. Complementing these is a fourth fragrance, created specifically for the exhibition, designed to ignite a sense of longing and support the making of new memories.
📍Opening Reception: Thursday 5/22, 6-9PM
On view through July 20, 2025
See you there 🥂
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Tags: Chicago, Lola Ayisha Ogbara, Lola Ogbara, Marked, Tala Gallery, West Town
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