The work of Twins Seven-Seven (Ijara, Nigeria, 1944 – 2011, Ibadan, Nigeria) is included in Foreigners Everywhere, the central exhibit at the Venice Biennale which opened on April 20, 2024, with the following introduction:
Twins Seven-Seven belonged to a group of Oshogbo painters who came together as Nigeria was undergoing political and economic upheaval. In the highly detailed The Architect (1989), a transfer of drawing to wood, Twins presents a host of female figures in celebration of the visual language of Úli, a female body and wall painting tradition from south-eastern Nigeria based on sinuous, natural forms. The mother architect, who occupies almost the entirety of the frame with her yogi-like pose, holds ideas of symmetry, reflection, and boundedness through the double-headed serpent that crowns her head. Of particular note are the clusters of pitched thatch roofs that appear behind her. Although disparate units, Twins draws the individual houses, a reference to precolonial architecture, politically interlocking them into a whole. This is the first time the work of Twins Seven-Seven is presented at Biennale Arte. —Nancy Dantas