Collector and dealer Adam Lindemann has opened a non-selling exhibition titled 'Urhobo + Abstraction' at his David Adjaye-designed home near the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The show, running until June 13, pairs 19th-century Urhobo sculptures from the Niger Delta with works by Black American abstractionists including Ed Clark, Norman Lewis, Richard Mayhew, Merton D. Simpson, and Alma Thomas. It is the first time Urhobo sculptures have been shown together in the US, and the exhibition is anchored by five wood carvings of warriors and royalty, one from Lindemann's private collection.
The exhibition matters because it draws explicit aesthetic and narrative connections between historical African sculpture and modern Black abstraction, particularly artists from the 1960s Spiral movement who used non-figuration to address inequality. It also arrives just before the reopening of the Met's Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, dedicated to African, Oceanic, and ancient American arts, which Lindemann helps steer. By highlighting Urhobo traditions that the Met will not feature, Lindemann positions the show as a complementary exploration of under-recognized African art forms and their influence on contemporary practice.