Ed Cross is delighted to present Jápa, a solo exhibition by Professor Jerry Buhari. This series is a meditation on migration and endurance, set against the backdrop of Buhari’s reflections on his personal history, the future of his family, and a national zeitgeist of movement in post-colonial Nigeria.
Jápa, derived from the Yorùbá word meaning “to flee” or “to escape,” has evolved into a widely used slang term in Nigeria, especially among younger generations. Popularised by the 2018 track of the same name by British-Nigerian artist Naira Marley, jápa signifies the desire of Nigerians to leave behind oppressive conditions in search of greener pastures through new opportunities abroad. Buhari reflects on this phenomenon not as a passing moment, but as part of a larger history of dislocation and search for freedom. Through the Jápa series, Buhari interrogates migration as a markedly political yet deeply complex emotional and physical phenomenon. For Buhari, his paintings are “multi-layered texts…in one sense, the journals of a migrant” writes Ayọ̀ Akínwándé in the essay that accompanies the exhibition.
In the main gallery space hangs the eight textile works which extend Buhari’s exploration of migration into the realm of symbolism and cartography. These pieces feature clusters of circular scrap fabrics in brown, blue and green, representing fleeing Africans, the precarious Mediterranean Sea and Europe/North America, respectively. The textile works, created through a meticulous process of dyeing, stitching, and layering, evoke, as Ayọ̀ Akínwándé writes, “a symbolic journey through layered geographies”.
In addition to the textile series are fourteen miniature works on paper. These pieces - grouped into the sub-series Personal Landscape I–VI (2024), In the Valley of Decision I–III (2024), and Migrants’ Dream of Greenlands I–V (2024) - reflect an intimate approach to the theme of Jápa, capturing Buhari’s own internal struggles with his children’s potential flight from Nigeria as part of his meditations on migration. These small scale works invite close viewing, where the audience is encouraged to ask: “what does it mean to move - voluntarily or otherwise”.
In the large-scale mixed media works: Jápa as Explorers (2025) and The World in Jápa (2025), Buhari reimagines the migrant as an explorer, a navigator who experiences jápa not just as a a rupture but a process of redefinition, embarking on a journey filled with uncertainty and hope.
Jápa is a contemporary meditation on experiences that have long been part of the human condition. Buhari constructs a visual lexicon of departure: fractured space and motifs of dislocation. The sense of motion throughout the works is tense and ambivalent. The artist encourages the viewer to consider the narrative elements of Jápa and in doing so, reveals the sinuous stories of migration in the West African context, where both the artist and his subjects navigate the complex inner landscapes of disillusionment and new horizons.
Professor Jerry Buhari (b. 1959, Kaduna State, Nigeria) is a respected artist, curator and arts educator whose practice spans over four decades. Buhari studied at the Department of Fine Art, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he now serves as a professor. His work explores socio-political narratives, environmental issues, and intercultural dialogue through his practice and curatorial projects. In recent years, Buhari’s practice has engaged with the theme of migration, reflecting on the emotional, historical, and cultural dimensions of human movement across geographies. He has curated and contributed to exhibitions interrogating displacement, identity, and memory within African and global contexts. Buhari has curated numerous landmark exhibitions, including retrospectives for Abiodun Olaku and Jimo Akolo, and participated in international residencies and biennials in the US, UK, Cuba, and China. A founding member of the Aftershave International Artists Workshop, he is deeply committed to nurturing artistic exchange across Africa and beyond.
Buhari has received numerous awards and fellowships, including from the Commonwealth Foundation, the Japan Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Triangle Trust and Vermont Studio Centre. He is a Fellow of the Society of Nigerian Artists and has been listed in "Who is Who in Nigerian Art." He has held visiting professorships and lectureships at institutions such as Princeton University, Savannah College of Art and Design, and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He also serves as an advisor to Arthouse Contemporary and curated their landmark exhibition on the Zaria Art Society in 2019.
Selected solo exhibitions include Landscapes of the Soul, Kó, Lagos (2022); Jerry Buhari, Kó, Lagos (2021); Framed Images of Time and Memories, Thought Pyramid Art Centre Wuse, Abuja (2017); Jerry Buhari in Retrospection: 33 Years +, Kashmiri Ibrahim Library and Department of Fine Arts Gallery, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (2015) and Encounters & Dialogues, Artspring Gallery, Kansas (2008). Selected group exhibitions include Art Dubai, Gallery Harare in partnership with Kó, Dubai (2023); IN A POT OF HOT SOUP, Brunei Gallery, London (2022); Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles (2014) and Àsìkò: Evoking Personal Narratives and Collective History, Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos (2013). In 2022, Buhari exhibited and delivered the keynote speech at ArtoP: The Visual Articulation of Politics at the Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
