Absolutely honored to share these installation shots from the new “UNBOUND: Art, Blackness, & the Universe” exhibition at the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco which marks the museum’s 20th anniversary.
I am so happy that my artworks and my “Future Relics” sculpture series (a collaboration with @citizenprojectspace ) are up alongside heavyweights and personal favorites like Lorna Simpson (@lornasimpson ), Rashaad Newsome (@rashaadnewsome ) and Harmonia Rosales (@honeiee ). Also pictured in the same room are powerful 20th-century Dogon statues made by inhabitants of a cliff region near the Niger River in Mali.
A huge thank you to the entire team at @moadsf for believing in my work, and a special thanks to curator Key Jo Lee (@keyjolee ) who put together an incredible display of Black talent and creativity.
More than an exhibition, UNBOUND is a philosophical inquiry and sensory experience. UNBOUND invites us to wonder: What else can Blackness be? When freed from institutional constraints and historical reductiveness, Blackness becomes luminous—an expansive mode of being, a cosmology of creative potential.
The show is on view until August 16, 2026. Check it out if you’re in the Bay Area, and stay tuned for more exciting updates! 👁️✨☁️
Exhibition photos by Josef Jacques courtesy of MoAD
#moadsf #davidalabo #unbound #museumofafricandiaspora
NEWS FLASH🚨I MADE IT ON @CNN !
On there, I discuss my experience navigating the intersection between Afrofuturism and surrealism as a Black artist. You can read more about how & why I create digital art + my plans for 2022 through the link in my bio.
👁✨🔮🙏🏾🇬🇭🇲🇦 @cnnstyle
It is so cool to look back and reflect on how far my work has come in the four years since my last feature on the platform. So much to learn and grow from as we step into the future.
thank you for sticking along on the ride and showing love ! It keeps me going fr
A big thank you to Rebecca (@jetsetcreate ) for truly capturing the essence of my practice and our conversations surrounding it ✍️✨
#cnn #blackcontemporaryart #africanartist #davidalabo #afrosurrealism #afrofuturism #ghanaart #blackartist #surrealist #surrealism #contemporaryafricanart
The Companion (2025)
I imagined this figure as a vessel for stillness. A body at rest, a presence turned inward. It feels both familiar and slightly otherworldly, like something unearthed from a time not yet lived. A future relic.
Bronze was the only material that made sense. It carries memory. In West Africa it has always spoken of reverence and continuity, of what endures when everything else falls away.
The word that stays with me is legacy. It shapes how I think about the future and how the work I create might carry meaning long after me. Legacy reminds me that what we make holds weight, and that its value begins within before it ever belongs to the world outside.
This piece will soon sit within the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. It feels right that it will live there, holding its quiet space✨
Photo courtesy: Citizen Projects
#sculpture #davidalabo #bronzesculpture #bronze #contemporaryafricanart
what we seek in the heavens has always been within
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#afrofuturism #surrealist #worldbuilding #visualalchemy #dreamcore #liminalcore #worldbuildingart #afrofuturist #minimalistart
Future Relics
Hand of Man I
Cast from the artist’s hand
Bronze, plaster mold
c. 2025
First in an ongoing sculptural series exploring memory, legacy, and speculative timelines
contact @citizenprojectspace for inquiries
#bronzesculpture #lostwaxcasting #contemporarysculpture #bronzeart #africanartcollector
Bronze Becoming: Part I
Started this self-portrait a few weeks ago in Benin City. Sculpted a digital version of my head and went through the ancient lost wax process with my own futuristic twist using 3D print, wax, clay, fire. Everything disappears until there’s just a cavity left.
Igun Street is its own archive : generational transfer of knowledge through form, function, and texture.
what happens when you run your identity through different materials from code to wax to metal. What stays? What gets burned out?
This is Part I. Metal comes next.
@citizenprojectspace x @angelsandmuse
#lostwax #bronzecasting #materialstudy #afrofuturism #3dprint #sculptureprocess
happy birthday to me (& Archie!)
I learn more and more each year that the secret to life on this tiny blue planet is gratitude.
blessings to all that show love & share their light ❤️✨
📸: @mathildanoelia
What a blessing it was to exhibit my work at the @ulrichmuseum for Dream Machine: Fantasy, Surreality, and Play. I also had the opportunity to present my practice and connect with the community during the artist talk, which made the experience even more meaningful. A few students from the School of Digital Arts worked hard to render these wicked Augmented Reality versions of the work - their creativity was super inspiring.
A huge thanks to the team at the Ulrich and the wonderful people in Wichita for making me feel welcomed and giving me a platform to speak and showcase my passion. I hope to return soon fr!
#surrealistartist #ulrichmuseum #exhibitingartist #contemporaryartwork #afrofuturist
