Becoming is an invitation to see beyond the limitations we place on materials, and on ourselves. It is a reflection on choice, on change, and on the beauty that emerges when broken things are given a second life. It is about the process — the slow, deliberate, and sometimes violent act of transformation.
As a multidisciplinary upcycling visual artist, Taiwo Owoyeni work with discarded materials to explore what it means to become. Each piece is a vibrant tapestry of texture, born from what was once overlooked and deemed without value. Through repurposing waste, he challenges our perceptions of consumption and ask: what else can be made new?
For two decades, the Artist has worked with materials the way one works with memory: collecting, layering, tearing, and repurposing. Ropes, paper, metal, metal foils, found objects, paint — nothing is fixed. Everything is in a state of becoming.
These are retrospective traces that journey from Prospect to Process to Prominence.
Early works ask: What can this material be?
Middle works ask: What has this material survived?
Recent works declare: This is what the material has become.
The Artist’s practice is rooted in Repurpose & Being. He is drawn to things that carry history — discarded Soda Cans, Surfaces worn, Structures broken. In his hands, they do not disappear. They shift. They speak a new language.
Mixed media is not just a technique for him. It is a philosophy. Identity is not singular. Neither is material. They are all collages — of experiences, of time, of places they have been.
BECOMING invites you to witness 20 years of that thinking made visible.
To see how a scrap becomes a statement.
How a fragment becomes a whole.
How we, like our materials, are constantly in the act of becoming.
