Migration is not only about the movement of bodies across a border—it is about what we carry with us, what we leave behind, and what finds its way back to us in unexpected ways. Oluseye: Negro Crossing traces the migrations of African diasporic peoples across the Atlantic and celebrates the ways culture, knowledge, and spiritual practices are transferred, reimagined, and reclaimed through these movements.
Referencing the warnings of train crossings—both literal and symbolic—as sites of passage and restriction, the exhibition examines the borders that have shaped Black life, from the forced migrations of the transatlantic slave trade to the self-determined journeys of Black communities seeking refuge, opportunity, or return. Negro Crossing is reclaimed as a declaration of presence, an assertion of movement, and a challenge to imposed boundaries.
Through sculpture, assemblage, and architectural intervention, Oluseye: Negro Crossing moves beyond borders to explore the cohesion and global influence of Afro-diasporic cultures. By confronting the weight of history—embedded in language, in space, and in movement—the exhibition invites us to reflect not just on where we come from, but on what we carry forward.
Oluseye Ogunlesi, Black Ark, 2022. Image by Cassandra Popescu.
About the Artist
Oluseye Ogunlesi (b. 1986, London, UK) is a Nigerian Canadian artist. Using “diasporic debris” — a term used to describe the artifacts collected on his trans-Atlantic travels — Oluseye traces Blackness through its multifaceted migrations and manifestations. These transformational objects are recast into sculpture, performance, and photography; invoking his personal narratives within a broader examination of Black Diasporic identity and African spiritual traditions. Oluseye embraces Blackness as divine, fluid, and unfixed; unbound by time, space, and geographies. His practice blends the ancestral with the contemporary and the physical with the spiritual. Oluseye has exhibited at the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Fransisco (2024), Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto (2024), Southern Guild Gallery, Cape Town (2023), the Gardiner Museum, Toronto (2023), Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo (2022), Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (2021), Agnes Etherington Art Center, Queen’s University, Kingston (2021) and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2015). In 2022, his first public art commission, Black Ark, was installed in Toronto’s Ashbridge’s Bay Park, and in Fall 2024 will embark on a tour of the Maritimes with stops at the Owens Art Gallery and The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
