Camouflage is considered in science as a form of imitation in which an organism or object takes the appearance of its surroundings to evade detection. This is a physical phenomenon driven by chemical processes, and it is a key tool for resistance and survival in both natural and human environments. As Roger Caillois explored Men, play and play (1958), disguise can also transcend the necessity of biology, namely entering the realm of game and artistic expression. In this sense, imitation has become both a survival mechanism and a deception, which can be seen in games and social interactions. The act of incorporating or covering one’s true identity becomes a game of imitation, emerging as a cultural and social practice. In this oscillation between hiding and visibility, questions arise about how identity is performed to meet social expectations, as well as the social, cultural and political implications of physical and symbolic transformation, identity and invisibility.
The subject of disguise is a physical, cultural and sociological phenomenon, and since his vibrant, enduring work, Anthony Akinbola’s practice has been crucial. After a brief dabbling in installation and sculpture, the artist returns to this core focus on Sean Kelly’s new show. Here he extends his exploration of camouflage with technology and materials in a way that has become his signature, while continuing to push the limits of painting, transforming everyday matter into an evocative space that transcends conventional functions and meanings.
“Through this show, I want to explore how disguises work politically and naturally,” Akinbola told Observers before opening as he was completing his last work in his studio. “My original purpose was to explore the role of material in social, its meaning in public spaces, and the concept of stereotype threats. I started that work, named it even before I actually explored it, and explored it over the past nine years, and I think I’m revisiting what this work means to me.”
Durag has been the central material in Akinbola’s practice for at least a decade. Headwear often associated with African-American culture has a layer of meaning, ranging from hair care and cultural identity to the deep-rooted stereotypes that Akinbola has long tried to challenge. In this show, he pushes the material further, disguising it as a landscape like a garden or sea view to resist routine readings of fabrics and their cultural relevance.
Durag itself is a cultural artifact shaped by context, location and time. “Durag originated from African culture, but also means that this juxtaposition – African and Black America – is very different but actually the same,” Akinbola explains. “I want to investigate the idea of losing my identity and the potential stereotypes through how people view Durag.”
“In the way I use disguise and how I talk about Durag, it is both a resistance to stereotypes and a resistance to direct reading of materials. That’s why Durag can be in a garden scene, surrounded by flowers, still to racism, oppression, stereotype threats and all other meanings and traditional materials, it extends the material.
Durag is stitched and layered in complex patterns, a culturally relevant material that converts it into pure pigments, forming a vibrant, glowing and poetic evocative ingredients. If Akinbola’s Durag paintings once talked primarily about assimilation, stereotypes and black identities, they now also draw on the potential of color theory and abstraction to summon the entire world. Akinbola confirms, “Color is definitely the main focus,” Pink lemonade And reflect on it as a piece of pink, but it evokes the entire image and the feeling closely related to it.
When we met Akinbola a year ago for his SCAD performance in Savannah, he told Observer that he wanted to position his work in painting because the art world still protects it as “painting.” Challenging and expanding this definition has been the core drivers in his research. “To draw, I use items that are already a repository of cultural and social memory,” he said. At SCAD, Akinbola adopted products marked by the African American Association to create a large number of painter arrangements that blend from a distance into abstract components.
Echoing Bruno Latour’s theory of actor network, Durags and other objects in Akinbola’s work are not only raw materials. They have historical, cultural associations and social significance. Each object acts as an active node in the network linking artists and viewers. Colors, textures and even exhibition spaces interact with these objects, together shaping perception and interpretation. Through this interaction, these works go beyond the meaning embedded in individual elements, become symbols of wider collective and social expression, and speak to African-American experiences while entering new realms of imaginative and allegorical.
In “disguise,” these works are less concerned with critical or pedagogy, but more suited to how colors, textures, and gestures produce new narratives and imaginative spaces that are associated with greater power than cultural details or personal history (such as nature).
In a conversation with Akinbola this time, he highlighted the invasion of these objects as painting displays, especially in the context of painting history and exclusivity. This became a challenge to what Western European-centered painting understanding and what it might be, inviting viewers to go beyond these limitations.
In this sense, Akinbola puts himself within the lineage of an artist like Robert Rauschenberg, who questions the respect of painting by bringing the material reality of life into the canvas and using everyday objects as a medium. “I feel like I work in the same legacy,” Akinbola reflects. “Painting is for development.”
The way Akinbola uses a given color feels like making a “life” painting with materials coming from everyday life. “These are Durags, the materials people live with. I like the idea that they are paintings, but it’s not about creating symbolic images, it’s not my goal, it’s not collage. It’s its own,” he said.
Through this approach, Akinbola tested the audience’s response to the material and its empirical potential. “I think it’s more about witnessing people’s reactions to objects and work. From this, I can observe social dynamics. Because I’m human and have a relationship with objects, that dynamic is there.”
He continued, “I have always tended to use representative abstractions.” He went on to explain that in this show he knew something he wanted to render and the story he wanted to tell, not a disguise, not a conceptual idea, but its literal history. “I knew I wanted to create a water feature and a garden, so I knew I needed a green garden and the sun would play a role,” he said. In this work, he created a gradient from white to black, depicting the sea. This work is related to Monet’s late arrival Water lilywhile still giving the audience a recognizable sense of reality.
“With art, we are always imitating things that exist in nature. I would say I am a painter. Many people might try to say I am not, but I’m not sure what labels mean.” He pointed out that the creative freedom provided by the disguise (his own style, his own Lexton material, his own Lexton) has all released his work.
At some point, Akinbola admitted that he didn’t even think about race when he made these paintings. “I’ve worked with Durags for so long, so it has that foundation, but now it has to do with color and abstraction,” he said. “It has nothing to do with labor or ready-made; at this point, I’m focused on painting and color.”
In this show, Akinbola deliberately attempts to get his artistic language out of physical materials and the prejudice he has long faced as a black artist in the United States, stereotyped reading “I want to focus on disguise as a main theme, but I want to go beyond the entire stereotyped threat and assimilation dialogue,” he said.
Therefore, these works should be understood as artistic and philosophical inquiry into what paintings, colors, and objects, rather than the conventional meanings associated with them. They become symbols of a wider world, suggesting the possibility of evolving dictionaries of art rather than racial or cultural classifications.
“I want to solve a bigger concept,” Akinbola asserted. For him, the disguise was by wearing a duragg, a password switch or handling the painting in an unconventional way, all for him to open up new possibilities of transformation and meaning. It shows that there are other ways to read this material world. “I also want people to admit that I’m trying to paint. These are not just about displaying the conceptual execution of Durague in the gallery space.” For Akinbola, it’s the essence of his practice: transcending the classification of materials and embracing the potential of painting to open up new imaginative spaces and new forms of meaning.
Anthony Akinbola’s “disguise” will be in Sean Kelly, New York as of October 18, 2025.
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