Hybrids (2020)
Central Saint Martins, London
In this exhibition, Agusto introduces eight hybrid characters who become the first indigenous beings inhabiting her paracosm. According to the lore she creates, these hybrids are born from a combination of her DNA and that of Ó, the ancestral deity responsible for creating the world. Each hybrid is born in the artist’s image, but with mutations reflecting her lived experiences. They possess magical abilities and represent fragments of Agusto’s personality as they embark on various journeys in her later works.
Escape to Within (2021)
DADA, London
Escape to Within marks the first introduction to the landscape of Agusto’s fantastical paracosm, known as ‘Within.’ In a series of mixed-media collages, humans arrive in an otherworldly landscape where hair grows from the ground. These human subjects—friends, family, and passersby from the artist’s life—live on in her mind and therefore exist in Within. The braided terrains metaphorically nod to the world being “in her head,” while also referencing cornrows as sites of alien arrival in Sci-Fi films. Here, humans arrive as cross-reality migrants to a new fantasy world. The Braided Labyrinth series specifically references migration, as its compositions are based on the linearity of national flags, showing subjects literally navigating through ideas of nationality. The chronologically-curated exhibition ends with Umbanda, one of the hybrids, arriving in the braided forest to guide the new human arrivals into the wider world of Within.
Psychoscape (2022)
TAFETA, London
In Psychoscape, Agusto expands on the concept of Within as a psychological landscape. By pairing her drawn collages with a wall painting, she emphasises the intertextual relationship between her works, showing how they are to be read narratively. This installation depicts the humans leaving the island of the Braided Forest and arriving on the shores of the mainland. Other works in the exhibition subsequently explore the architectural possibilities of Within, illustrating structures built from braids and locs. Umbanda leads the humans to shore, while the next hybrid, Aruaro, guides them into one of the braided buildings for the next step in their journey.
Outside (2023)
kó, Lagos
In her first solo exhibition in her hometown, Agusto follows three of her hybrid protagonists. A love story unfolds for Agama, Irunoji embarks on a supernatural adventure, and Aruaro observes it all from her window. This body of work establishes that Aruaro’s magical ability allows her to see spiritual presences through the eyes nestled in her tribal marks. A section of the exhibition mimics a domestic space, incorporating breeze blocks, still-life drawings of surreal plants, and small-scale works displayed as family photos on a console. This nod to the domestic space adds a layer of humour, as it marks the artist's first hometown exhibition. The exhibition also signals a technical shift for Agusto, as she moves from collage to combining painting, drawing, and printmaking on sanded pastel paper.
Loose Spirits (2023)
Ruskin School of Art, Oxford
Following her MA at SOAS University, Agusto takes a particular interest in the concept of the unseen. During her MFA at the Ruskin School of Art, she begins juxtaposing drawn and printed figures to illustrate both the physical and spiritual subjects in her work. For her graduate show, she presents Reaching Through Worlds (2023) on a five-meter mural, depicting a collection of braided hands reaching out to capture a flock of loose apparitions. This evolution marks a shift in the artist’s focus, exploring spirituality and the afterlife within the world of Within.
Lands of the Living (2024)
DADA, London
In Lands of the Living, Agusto establishes the spiritual mechanics of Within, drawing from various religious cosmologies. When someone dies in the artist’s waking life, their body in Within dissolves into a patterned cloud and ascends to the Spiritual Realm. The passing of Agusto’s father triggers a surge of spiritual activity in Within. It becomes clear that the braided hands belong to Ó, the ancestral deity, and symbolize divine intervention. These hands erupt from the ground and sky to capture loose apparitions, leaving behind a magical substance known as darkskinclay.
Irunoji, the hybrid with braids extending from her eyes, collects this darkskinclay and crafts masquerade cloaks from it. When the characters Olubunmi, Umbanda, Iroko, and Elfe don these cloaks, they immediately swap bodies with souls from the Spiritual Realm. This act reimagines the Yoruba concept of the egúngún masquerade, where the living performer becomes a bodily host for the dead in the land of the living.
