Tether

by Teju Abiola

OPENING RECEPTION:
APRIL 19, 2026 | 2:00PM – 4:30PM

Project 308 Gallery, 308 Oliver St, North Tonawanda, NY 14120

On view from April 19, 2026 – May 30, 2026GALLERY HOURS:
Saturdays, 12PM - 5PM, or by appointment (716-523-0068)

In Tether, artist Teju Abiola utilizes the traditional Yorùbá resist-dyeing method of àdìrẹ eleko to explore contradictions of intersectional identity and the reassociation of the abstract ruminating mind with the physical sensing body. Tethers are ties that can restrict and restrain, but also connect and comfort. Each piece is an attempt at weaving connections with herself; reconciling who she came from, who she is, who she is becoming, and who she has always been. Lush and textural, her works become sites of aesthetic melancholia that entice viewers to look closer.Troubled by feeling disconnected from her Nigerian heritage and a dissociating set of neuroses and disorders, she pursues catharsis in solidifying the intangible—transmuting injury, belief, burden, and hope into tactile, malleable art objects. She employs scarves to embody her work beyond the static two dimensional image, taking advantage of how fabric’s sartorial purpose links the optical and corporeal. For her, a Black woman with OCD and trichotillomania, headscarves are both comfort objects and barriers. Her personal motivations in donning a scarf nearly every day mirrors those of the broader African diaspora, simultaneously imbuing the act of headcovering with shame, compulsion, protection, decoration, and celebration.Tether invites viewers to consider the many ways we are linked to the world, to each other, and to ourselves.

Teju Abiola is a painter, illustrator, and printmaker based in Buffalo, New York who loves art history, materials, and processes. Fascinated by the contradictions of intersectional identity, she examines personal and cultural perceptions of self.Watercolor’s expressive fluidity and the iterative communal aspects of printmaking inspire her to challenge the separation of low and high art from a postcolonial perspective and play in the blurry overlap. She juxtaposes narrative realistic rendering with abstracted nebulous forms, creating ambiguous morphing fractal-like shapes as conduits for ruminations on disability, gender, alienation, race, and mental health. Her pieces become sites of aesthetic melancholia, and her rich colors and ornamentation entice viewers to look closer.Teju was a 2018-19 Ringling Illustration Trustee Scholar and received her BFA in Illustration with a minor in Visual Development from the Ringling College of Art and Design in 2019. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Studio Art from SUNY University at Buffalo where she is a 2024-2026 Arthur A. Schomburg Fellow. Teju is also a Senior Artist at Hallmark Cards and a Winsor & Newton Watercolour Demo Artist.Notable work includes illustration, lettering, and writing for Hallmark Mahogany’s Uplifted & Empowered collection; contribution to the Art of Change: In Support of Black Lives book and Kickstarter alongside 100 artists and collaborators in the illustration, animation, fine arts, game, and other industries; and portraits of the advisory board and staff for the online newspaper The Emancipator, founded by Ibram X. Kendi and Bina Venkataraman.Inquiries: [email protected].