Nengi Omuku: The Gathering

Now showing27 June 2026 – 14 May 2028$25

Nigerian painter Nengi Omuku's first US solo museum show: dreamlike scenes painted on handwoven Yoruba sanyan cloth, alongside works from the arts of Africa collection.

Exhibition website Book tickets

More in San Francisco

On now All of October 2026

In New Haven, people wade through flowers taller than they are, each holding something bright yellow. Look closer, as KQED's critic did, and the yellow shapes are jerry cans: the figures are queuing for fuel.

It's eight oil paintings, four of them new for this show, set among the de Young's arts of Africa collection in Galleries 40 and 50. Omuku paints on sanyan, a handwoven Yoruba ceremonial cloth that she unpicks and re-stitches, and she paints on its reverse. The works hang away from the walls, so you walk around each one and see the cloth from both sides. It's the one gallery in the building where looking at the back of a painting is the point. Nearby hangs a Yoruba paka egungun, a masquerade garment of countless fabric flaps.

KQED called it the best of the three contemporary shows staged inside the de Young's African galleries so far. General admission covers it: $25, free for 17 and under.

Look for

New Haven (2025)
Look for the figures scattered among towering flowers, each carrying a bright yellow jerry can that reads at first as foliage.
The Gathering (2020)
A nude figure lies stretched out at the height of the onlookers' faces, tended by a crowd three deep; Omuku drew on the Pietà and on Yoruba mourning.
Paka egungun (1930 to 1970)
A Yoruba masquerade dance garment of layered fabric flaps with appliqué, mirrors, metal amulets, coins and shell buttons, worn by dancers embodying ancestors.
Hornbill mask for the Poro society (19th century)
A carved wooden Mano mask in the form of a hornbill, finished with feathers, cloth and aluminium.