The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Abuja and Thought Pyramid Art Centre are collaborating to host the ICONIC ABUJA arts show slated for between 18 and 26 in Abuja. Addressing a press conference at the embassy in Abuja on Tuesday, the embassy’s deputy spokesperson, Dorothea Wenzel, said, “A new visual narrative of Nigeria’s capital is about to unfold—one that moves beyond the familiar surfaces of architecture and planning to reveal the deeper, more complex realities of the city and the people who shape it.” She said the event, which will open at Thought Pyramid Art Centre, is a major contemporary art exhibition led by photographer and visual storyteller Bolaji Alonge, in collaboration with German photographer Katharina Sasse and thirteen Nigerian artists working across photography, painting, and mixed media.

According to her, Sasse’s participation brings an important international dimension to the project, reflecting a cross-cultural dialogue that resonates strongly with Abuja’s own global character. “Building on the momentum of ICONIC LAGOS (Didi Museum, 2022), the exhibition shifts its focus toward a distinctly different urban narrative. “Conceived in 1976 as a purpose-built capital—an ambitious symbol of neutrality, unity, and national aspiration—Abuja has long been understood through the language of structure: its master plan, its wide boulevards, its monumental landmarks.

“Yet, as this exhibition makes clear, the city cannot be reduced to its design. It is continuously redefined by those who move through it, inhabit it, and negotiate its possibilities and pressures on a daily basis. “ICONIC ABUJA approaches the city not as a fixed identity, but as an evolving condition.

Through a constellation of artistic perspectives, it reveals a place where ambition and uncertainty coexist, where power and precarity intersect, and where everyday life quietly reshapes the meaning of the capital,” she said. The participating artists—John Ali, Bolaji Alonge, Ahmad Michael, Aisha Mbaya, Mustapha Musa, Dan Ogbogu, Yemi Olapo, Olaosun Oluwapelumi, Babajide Olusanya, Oluwaseun Otokiti, Austin Orakwelu, Katharina Sasse, Olanrewaju Shittu, Moses Sodipo, and Christabel Uchechi—bring together a wide range of practices and perspectives, each engaging with Abuja through distinct thematic and visual approaches.

At the centre of the project, Bolaji Alonge’s practice continues to expand the visual language through which Nigerian cities are understood. Known for his platform Eyes of a Lagos Boy, Alonge’s work combines documentary precision with narrative depth, creating images that are both archival and immediate. Through projects such as ICONIC LAGOS and now ICONIC ABUJA, he positions photography as a tool for reimagining urban identity from an African perspective—one that foregrounds lived experience, memory, and cultural nuance.

This sensibility is captured with clarity in the work of photographer Christabel Uchechi, whose reflection that “Abuja is not the structures… it is the people” reframes the entire exhibition. In her view, it is the often-unseen individuals—those who “give it meaning without trying to be seen”—who transform space into lived reality. This sensibility is further echoed in the work of German photographer Katharina Sasse, whose practice is grounded in observing the quiet, often overlooked moments that define a place.

Reflecting on her experience of the city, she notes that “Abuja doesn’t reveal itself all at once. It lives in moments—in gestures, in encounters, in the rhythm of everyday life. “My work is about holding on to those fleeting fragments, because that’s where the true character of a city exists,” she said. Her perspective brings an important layer to the exhibition, offering a nuanced, attentive reading of Abuja that complements and deepens the broader narrative.