In this edition of the CFC Art Guide, we spotlight Skin Tight, organised by Alyssa Velazquez, assistant curator at the Carnegie Museum of Art. The exhibition brings together works by Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola and Turiya Magadlela, who transform everyday textiles such as durags and nylon pantyhose into striking abstract compositions that examine identity, race, gender and the politics of the body through materials worn directly against the skin.

Skin Tight, curated by Alyssa Velazquez

Featured artists: Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola and Turiya Magadlela
Dates: Until 25 July 2027
Opening times: Friday–Wednesday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday: 10 a.m.–8 p.m.
Location: Carnegie Museum of Art, 4400 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States

Two contemporary international artists, Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola and Turiya Magadlela, pull together new works made from nylon pantyhose and durags. Their use of materials, in an array of complexion colors and patterns, results in multilayered artworks shaped by identity-making fashion choices. Durags and tights are commercially available, ready-made objects that come into contact with a person’s skin and hair, managing and manipulating physical features and character assumptions. While many athletic dress code policies ban the wearing of durags, hosiery is still closely associated with white-collar worker attire. These tight-fitting cloths increasingly became more affordable due to improved industrial manufacturing, contributing to their domestic and global affiliations with gender and class.

Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola, Magic City, 2021, Courtesy of the artist; photo: John Michael Kohler Arts Center

A constant, if not consistent, motif in the work of Akinbola and Magadlela continues to be the role of painting, its visual construction, where abstraction is reinterpreted in a different medium, a synthetic relative sold under countless brand names in mass fashion. Skin Tight stretches these conversations of innovation, identity, and everyday materials in new directions with breathtaking, artistic creations. Through Magadlela’s and Akinbola’s handling of a variety of flexible fabrics into abstract compositions, they craft unique and varying commentaries on the fetishisation and control of Black and Brown bodies—from head to toe.

Turiya Magadlela, Ikapalodumo ne nyaniso (truth about the cape), 2023, nylon Pantyhose on wooden canvas stretcher