Born in 1990 in Virginia, USA, Yussef Agbo-Ola is an artist and medicinal architect living between London, Lagos, and the Amazon Forest. Born into a multi-heritage household of Nigerian, African-American, and Cherokee descent in rural Virginia, his work reflects hybrid identities and relationships to diverse landscapes, ecologies, and cultural rituals. His multidisciplinary practice is concerned with interpreting natural energy systems through interactive experiments that explore connections between sensory environments, ranging from the biological and anthropological to the perceptual and microscopic. Yussef’s practice questions how art, architecture, and anthropological research can create experimental environments that challenge the ways we experience geological conditions and living ecosystems. His works manifest as architectural temples, photographic journalism, material alchemy, interactive performance, experimental sound design, and conceptual writing.
The artist holds a Master’s degree in Fine Art from the University of the Arts London and a Master’s degree in Architecture from the Royal College of Art. His artistic and architectural commissions have been presented internationally in solo and group exhibitions, including at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), Serpentine Gallery, Van Abbemuseum, TEDx East End, BBC Arts, Museum Folkwang, the Venice Architecture Biennale, Palais de Tokyo, Tai Kwun Contemporary, the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, and Lexus Automotive Innovation Centre Japan, among others. Agbo-Ola is the founder of Olaniyi Studio and serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture at Columbia GSAPP, where he directs an experimental design studio titled The Art of Poetic Environmental Architecture.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025 — Aiyé : CIRCULATION TEMPLE, Wuhan, China
2025 — Orí Òkè : Environmental Contemplation Space, Ibadan, Nigeria
2025 — Tensile Architecture Skins as Medicinal Plant Apparatus Collection, Amazon Forest, Brazil
2024 — Reset – Delic en Huda, Josèfa Ntjam und Yussef Agbo-Ola, Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands
2024 — 7 Rivers in Bone Ash, KÖNIG TELEGRAPHENAMT, Berlin, Germany
2024 — Omi Libations, Schering Stiftung, Berlin, Germany
2023 — IKUM: Drying Temple, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France
2022 — Ikum : DRYING TEMPLE, London, England
2022 — [FEx471.3]-[9oi], London, England
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS & BIENNIALS
2025 — Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Diriyah, Saudi Arabia
2025 — Cannibal Nature, Baró Galeria, Mallorca, Spain
2024 — 2nd Wuhan Biennale, Wuhan Art Museum, Wuhan, China
2024 — Refuge, Lagos Biennial, Lagos, Nigeria
2024 — Inner Spaces, KÖNIG SEOUL, Seoul, South Korea
2024 — In the darkness, We Ask the Sun to Remember Us, Sankt Hans, Roskilde, Denmark
2023 — Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Sharjah, UAE
2023 — Dancing Before The Moon, British Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy
2023 — Positions #7: Everything worthwhile is done with other people, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands
2023 — WE IS FUTURE. Visions of New Communities, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
2023 — Green Snake: women-centred ecologies, Tai Kwun, Hong Kong
2022 — Back To Earth, Serpentine Gallery, London, England
2022 — Reclaim the Earth, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2021 — Lagos Biennial, Lagos, Nigeria
2021 — With Others, Frac Lorraine, Metz, France
2018 — Molecular Violence, Arts Catalyst, London, England
AWARDS
2023 — Special Recognition, British Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy
2018 — Lexus Design Award Shortlist, Tokyo, Japan
2018 — EA Research Fellow Dean Award, Royal College of Art, London, England
2017 — Art of Giving Award, International Book Smart Foundation, United States
2016 — Flow Global Sustainability Award, London / India
