Dotun Popoola has become known as “Africa’s Iron King” for his incredible sculptures that he creates out of scrap metal. The well-known Nigerian artist, who has always employed art as a means of expression, views iron scrap as a symbol of societal dysfunction and believes that it may be used to generate jobs.
Popoola first showed interest in sculpture at the age of four. After enrolling in an art class where he learned to paint and sculpt, he attended Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria to study sculpting for his master’s degree. In 2015, at the age of 34, he used money he had earned from the sale of his car to travel to the U.S. to study under a mentor who taught him the technique of sculpting with iron, according to Business Day.
After a successful show in Lagos upon his return to Nigeria, he believed he’d found his audience. Today, the 43-year-old’s work is focused on transforming waste into wealth, primarily through metal recycling. At the Africa Investment Forum 2023 in Marrakech, Morocco, the artist and environmentalist stressed that his art fosters a recycling economy and lowers tons of waste in Nigeria.
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“My art is rooted in the use of discarded materials like motorcycle tanks, brake pads, car struts, bolts, nuts, and electric generator parts, all of which symbolize the visible signs of infrastructural decay in Nigeria,” Popoola told CNN.
Though his larger pieces can take one to two years to complete, he demonstrates a commitment to training and mentoring young artists to boost Africa’s art community, with a studio near Obafemi Awolowo University to train emerging artists.
The trailblazer has already mentored 400-500 people in Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda, and he hopes to reach even more young artists throughout Africa. He believes that by developing resources for their country, they can limit migration out of Africa.
Akin Alabi, a producer and director of videos, released a documentary in 2021 titled “Africa’s Iron King: A Waste to Wealth Documentary” about upcycling waste into art. The film centers on the energy crisis in Nigeria and the creative ways in which Popoola is utilizing his craft to transform trash into artistic creations.
Indeed, Popoola has achieved fame in his home nation and beyond the world. He recently presented Oba Saheed Ademola Elegushi, the Kusenla 111 of the Ikate Kingdom in Nigeria, a magnificent sculpture of a lion at his Lekki, Lagos, palace, which showcases a fusion of royalty, culture, history, and art, according to Vanguard.
The artist took more than two years to complete the 14-foot-long, 8.5-foot-high, and 4-foot-wide lion sculpture, which weighs 300,000 kg and was made of scrap metals, mild steel, aluminum, bronze, vehicle components, and auto-based pigment.
Additionally, CNN reported in May that Popoola’s “Irinkemi Asake,” an 882-pound sculpture measuring twelve feet in height and portraying the adorned head and neck of an African woman, is being shipped to the Legacy Museum in Alabama. The museum focuses on the history and legacy of slavery in the United States.
“Irinkemi Asake”, which roughly translates to “metals have enhanced my life” in the Yoruba language, was inspired by Popoola’s wife. Displayed as a part of the Artmiabo International Art Festival in Lagos, he started working on the piece in 2022 with discarded metal, galvanized pipes, automobile parts, stainless steel, and wrought iron. He also coated it with an anti-rust finishing and UV protection.
“The work showcases the beauty of Black women all over the world,” Popoola said of the sculpture. “At first glance, you would see her graceful curves, raw beauty, and her innate power. But it also represents the pain that Black women have gone through. Each piece of fragmented scraps and butterflies tells a story of her struggles and triumphs, of hardships endured, and barriers overcome.”
When Popoola unveiled the sculpture on Instagram this year, Tera DuVernay, the deputy director of Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, asked him if she could get it to her museum.
“I’ve had work displayed in Dubai, Qatar, India, all over the world — but none of them are in museums,” he told CNN. “I told myself it wasn’t about making money, it’s about the fact that the sculpture is going to the best place possible.”
As stated on his website, Popoola was featured at the 2018 West Africa International Art Fair, “ARTX Lagos.” He most recently represented Nigeria at the Global Art Festival in Gujarat, India, in 2020, and Coexistence in Tukey, 2021, as well as the first-ever scrap art exhibition in Souq Waqif, Qatar. At the most recent Expo 2020 Dubai, his hybrid sculpture stole the show in the Nigerian pavilion, “leaving world leaders speechless.”
