Journey to the Unknown — America based Nigerian Artist, Oluwatobi Adewumi is Mapping the Immigrant Soul Through Art.

Blanck Magazine EIC Franka Chiedu in Conversation with America Based Multidisciplinary Artist, Oluwatobi Adewumi  explores the concept of identity and belonging as he continues his “Journey to the Unknown”  exhibition currently on display at the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum Rural Arkansas.

Looking ahead, what themes or stories do you hope to explore next, and what impact do you want audiences to carry with them after seeing this exhibition?

Looking ahead, I’m developing a new museum project titled Routes & Roots. Here, routes means the concrete ways we came here by choice or necessity: family reunification, work, school, marriage, asylum, displacement plus the systems and moments that made arrival possible (visas, sponsors, buses, flights, carpools, border checks, directions scribbled on paper). Roots means what keeps us here: the people, languages, foods, faith practices, jobs, schools, and routines that turn a place into daily life. In the studio, this becomes layered portraits in charcoal and acrylic with itinerary marks and “arrival notes,” small object-based sculptures from everyday materials, and a modular update of the suitcase ledger. A participatory component asks two plain questions

 “How did you come here?” and “What keeps you here?” with bilingual, consent-based tags displayed legibly (not as decoration). The impact I’m after is practical and personal: audiences leave recognizing that identity is shaped by how we arrived and how we stay the paperwork, help networks, and risks that brought us, and the relationships and practices that hold us. If the work prompts one honest conversation at home about those two questions, it’s working.

When immigrants come here, a lot hits at once: documents, deadlines, new rules, different accents, and costs we didn’t plan for. You’re trying to secure housing and work while learning how the system functions, transport, health care, schools, banking etc. It’s not just logistics; it’s identity, language, and dignity. I want the viewer to see the resilience and strive we carry to belong in a new setting.

As Journey to the Unknown unfolds, Adewunmi reminds us that identity isn’t a passport stamp or a permanent address  it’s a practice. Through their evolving project Routes & Roots, they continue to explore how movement, memory, and resilience shape who we are and where we stay. For the artist  and for many of us belonging is not a destination. It’s a creative act, rebuilt every day from fragments of love, language, and lived experience. END