Daniel Bamigbade (b. 1982) is a Beninese sculptor working mainly in iron and recycled metal. Largely self-taught, he trained first as a cabinetmaker and then in ironwork before devoting himself fully to sculpture in 2007. Drawing on African statuary and the cosmology of Benin, he assembles his works, masks in particular, from iron, metal plates, car bolts and screws, cowrie shells and shards of mirror.
Daniel Bamigbade (b. 1982, Benin) is a Beninese sculptor who works mainly in iron and recycled metal. Largely self-taught as an artist, he first trained as a cabinetmaker specialising in furniture finishing and later learned ironwork, which became his principal medium. He has described his participation in initiation rites in Benin in 1999 as a turning point for his artistic direction, and in 2007 he committed himself fully to sculpture. His work draws on African statuary and on the cosmology of Benin, in which, as he has said, the symbolism of masks is especially present. Bamigbade assembles his pieces from iron together with salvaged objects such as metal plates, bolts and screws from cars, cowrie shells and fragments of mirror. Among his known works is “Agbalagba” (2010), a two-metre sculpture whose title he translates as “the greatest of the greats”. The masks offered by TUMO Gallery, made of iron and small found metal objects, are characteristic of this practice, in which discarded mechanical parts are reassembled into faces rooted in West African mask traditions.
