Selected from more than 100 international submissions, the Nigerian-born artist explores migration, memory, and belonging through a monumental public art installation debuting during Miami Art Week 2026.
MIAMI BEACH, FL — Nigerian-born, Arkansas-based interdisciplinary artist Oluwatobi Adewumi has been selected by the Lincoln Road Business Improvement District (LRBID) to present The Stories We Carry, a large-scale public art installation debuting in November 2026 as part of Art on Lincoln: Sculpture, Installations and More.
Chosen from more than 100 submissions by local, national, and international artists, Adewumi’s proposal reflects the growing significance of public art as a space for cultural exchange, collective memory, and dialogue. The installation will remain on view through May 2027, offering visitors an opportunity to engage with the personal and shared experiences of migration.
Born in 1981 in Ibadan, Nigeria, Adewumi has developed a multidisciplinary practice that examines the relationship between identity, displacement, memory, and belonging. Working across drawing, painting, collage, installation, and public art, he investigates how movement across geographical and cultural boundaries transforms individual lives and reshapes our understanding of home.
His artistic language incorporates charcoal, acrylic, archival materials, and found objects, transforming fragments of personal and collective history into visual narratives. Rather than treating migration exclusively as a geographical transition, Adewumi examines its emotional dimensions: what individuals preserve, what they leave behind, and how memories continue to shape their identities long after crossing borders.
Photo Credit: Jenn Terrell
The Stories We Carry: Migration as Collective Memory
At the center of Adewumi’s upcoming installation is the suitcase, an everyday object transformed into a metaphor for the visible and invisible weight of human movement.
Extending approximately 60 feet in length, 10 feet in width, and 9 feet in height, The Stories We Carry will feature a pathway of sculptural suitcases and suspended travel tags constructed from powder-coated steel, aluminum panels, and etched and laser-cut metal.
The installation incorporates portraits, handwritten words, travel marks, and archival fragments that evoke the experiences carried across generations and geographies. These elements suggest that identity cannot be reduced to nationality, birthplace, or cultural classification; it emerges through accumulated experiences, inherited memories, and relationships formed along the way.
The suitcase functions as both a physical container and a symbolic archive. Its contents, whether present or absent, raise questions about the relationship between memory and belonging. What do we choose to preserve when we leave a place behind? What becomes part of our identity through displacement? And how do the stories of migration continue to influence the communities in which we settle?
By transforming these questions into an immersive sculptural environment, Adewumi extends the experience of portraiture beyond the conventional picture plane. Visitors are invited not simply to contemplate individual narratives, but to recognize the relationships between their own experiences and those of others.
An Artistic Practice Rooted in Identity and Human Experience
Throughout his career, Adewumi has examined the human figure and the objects that carry traces of lived experience. His work connects personal history with broader questions of cultural identity, resilience, and the complexities of belonging.
His solo exhibitions have been presented at the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum in Arkansas, Von Lintel Gallery in Los Angeles, Ouachita Baptist University, South Arkansas Arts Center, Art Ventures NWA, ACANSA Gallery, and the Frances M. Maguire Art Museum at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
His work has also appeared in exhibitions at the Butler Institute of American Art, North Dakota Museum of Art, Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Salmagundi Club in New York, Rosenzweig Center for Arts & Education, and SCOPE Art Fair in Miami.
Adewumi’s artworks are held in public and private collections, including the North Dakota Museum of Art and The Bunker. He has also completed public art commissions in Arkansas and Nigeria, extending his artistic practice beyond institutional exhibition spaces.
His professional recognition includes finalist selection for the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art, the Grand Prize at the El Dorado Juried Exhibition, the People’s Choice Award at the Derwent Art Prize in London, and the Merit Award at the Providence Art Club National Juried Exhibition.
He has received an Artist Leadership Fellowship from Mid-America Arts Alliance and participated in residencies at Foundation House, Vermont Studio Center, and James Castle House, with a forthcoming residency at Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency.
Beyond the Artwork: Public Participation and Shared Humanity
Public engagement occupies an essential place in Adewumi’s artistic philosophy. Through exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and community-based projects, he creates environments where viewers are encouraged to reflect on their own histories and the experiences of others.
This participatory dimension becomes particularly significant in The Stories We Carry. By positioning the artwork within the pedestrian environment of Lincoln Road, Adewumi allows the installation to become part of everyday urban life, where individuals from different cultures and backgrounds encounter its narratives.
The project also raises a fundamental question about the nature of identity: whether belonging is determined by where we originate or by the relationships, experiences, and memories we accumulate throughout our lives.
Rather than presenting a singular narrative of migration, Adewumi creates a space where multiple histories can coexist. His installation recognizes displacement not only through its difficulties and losses but also through the resilience, transformation, and human connections that emerge from movement.
As Miami prepares to welcome international audiences for Miami Art Week and Art Basel Miami Beach 2026, The Stories We Carry introduces a timely reflection on migration in a city whose cultural identity has been profoundly shaped by the movement of people across borders.
Through this monumental installation, Oluwatobi Adewumi transforms the suitcase into more than an object of departure or arrival. It becomes a metaphor for the human condition—a reminder that wherever we go, we carry the experiences that have shaped who we are.
Exhibition: The Stories We Carry
Artist: Oluwatobi Adewumi
Location: Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, Florida
Opening: November 2026
On View: Through May 2027
Presented by: Lincoln Road Business Improvement District
Program: Art on Lincoln: Sculpture, Installations and More
