BERLIN.- Hamburger Bahnhof presents figurative drawings by Toyin Ojih Odutola: the narrative portraits trace the lives of various protagonists and show everyday or monumental settings, often interwoven with architectural details. Ojih Odutola transforms the museum's East Cabinet into ‘Adijatu Straße’, a station on the fictional U22 underground line, to explore the interplay between movement and history. Influenced by her upbringing as a West African woman in the American South, Ojih Odutola's work explores social and political dynamics through the medium of skin, the fluidity of expression, and the meaning of darkness and light. The artist's first solo exhibition in Germany features 25 works on paper and canvas.

The U-Bahn is Berlin's lifeline: it transports people and goods – and with them stories and memories. For her exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Toyin Ojih Odutola has designed a fictional line that ends at Adijatu Straße station in Berlin, named after her Muslim first name in the West African Yoruba language. Toyin Ojih Odutola (born in 1985 in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, lives and works in New York, USA) places the human figure at the centre of her art and uses traditional materials such as ink, charcoal and pastel chalk for her large-format portraits. In her narrative works, she constructs fictional mythologies and challenges viewers to question power dynamics, colonial history, and perceptions of African forms of expression and sexual orientation.

Upon entering the exhibition, visitors hear announcements from a fictional underground line, whose stations bear the titles of the artist's exhibitions. Spoken by the artist's cousin, who lives in Berlin, they reinforce the fusion of reality and fiction in the exhibition space. Language plays a central role in Ojih Odutola's practice: she publishes detailed narratives about the figures she draws, integrates texts into her graphic works, and brings the exhibition to life through spoken voices. Stations such as A Colonized Mind (2008, Alabama), To Wander Determined (2017, New York) and A Countervailing Theory (2020, London) are located on an imaginary route totalling 25,000 kilometres. Ojih Odutola's artistic practice explores how narratives change as they move through different places. ‘Spirited Awey: Chihiro – Ifemelu + Companions @ Adijatu Str. (A Thousand Happenings @ Adijatu Str.)’ (2025) reinterprets the Japanese main character from the animated film ‘Spirited Away’ (2001) as Ifemelu, the Nigerian protagonist from the novel Americanah (2013) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977). At Adijatu Strasse, Ifemelu and other characters from Ojih Odutola's drawings join visitors in anticipation of stories yet to be told.

Ojih Odutola creates drawings using ballpoint pen, charcoal, graphite and pastel chalk. These are traditional materials for painting sketches. Her elaborate layering technique opens up a new form of portraiture, a genre that in art history has predominantly depicted people with power and privilege. The frames of the drawings are an integral part of the works. They are designed from the outset in close collaboration with craftspeople.

Mounted on wooden blocks, the frames appear slightly detached from the background. This allows the figures and scenes depicted to step visibly into the space. In the diptych Fruitless Record-Keeping (2021), two individual works are connected by identical frames.

A subtle exchange of glances can be seen between ‘Balogun Market Vintage’ (2024-25) and ‘Agitated Accountant’ (2024-25). The boy in the bustling market in Lagos seems to be looking over at the adult in the neighbouring drawing. Glances across the exhibition space reveal relationships between the protagonists. Some figures seem connected by family ties, others by shared paths or spontaneous encounters. Like strangers who meet fleetingly on a train platform. Ojih Odutola's exhibition is not only a journey through space, but also through time and the history of the museum. Opened in 1846 as the terminus of the Berlin-Hamburg railway, it underwent constant change: closed to rail traffic in 1884, it later served as a transport museum, was damaged during the Second World War and stood in no man's land between East and West Berlin during the Cold War before the National Gallery opened the Museum of Contemporary Art here in 1996. In addition to the history of both German states, the building also carries global narratives, including colonialism. This is because the construction of the station coincided with the colonial expansion of the German Empire into parts of the African continent. The exhibition title also refers to social conflicts arising from the renaming of streets from colonial rulers to resistance fighters.

Toyin Ojih Odutola has recently had exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Basel (Switzerland), SFMOMA (California, USA), Barbican Centre (UK), Whitney Museum (New York, USA), and her work was shown at the 60th Venice Biennale 2024 in the Nigerian Pavilion.