Olayami Dabls:
Iron, Rocks, Wood, and Mirrors. Looking Back.
September 11 – October 31, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, September 11, 5-7 pm
At Matéria Eastern Market (1343 E. Fisher Freeway)
Matéria Gallery is thrilled to present Iron, Rocks, Wood, and Mirrors. Looking Back, an installation of nine new paintings by celebrated Detroit artist, storyteller, and cultural historian Olayami Dabls.
Part of the artist’s ongoing series of Iron, Rocks, Wood, and Mirrors works, the group of nine wall pieces in the exhibition titled Looking Back were created outdoors throughout 2025 and 2026, and incorporate materials found locally, operating as both painting and sculpture. The works reflect Dabls’ signature visual language present at the site of MBAD African Bead Museum—founded by the artist in Detroit’s West side in 2004—and in his mural projects across the city.
In Dabls’ creative practice, artworks are not separate from everyday life, they reflect community, expand connections throughout time and space, and create a window for reflection and healing. Invoking the inherent healing properties of specific materials such as iron, rocks, wood, mirrors, has become the foundation of his paintings and installations.
As one of the most ample and versatile elements on Earth, iron connects to abundance, strength, and advancement. Known as Earth’s preserved history books, rocks have recorded the changes in life and environment that have allowed humanity to flourish to our current state. Mirrors not only allow us to see our image, they allow us to also see what is behind us, connecting our present and past, and in African culture, have also been placed in carvings to repel negative energies. Wood is related to the strength and wisdom of trees, essential agents of life in this planet, and operates as a grounding element in the works.
Fusing layered references to African material culture, the urban landscape of Detroit, and personal symbology, the singular pieces in Looking Back are layered universes in themselves, where ordinary materials reveal their sacred properties, and tell the stories of lives expressed and transmuted.
Olayami Dabls: Iron, Rocks, Wood, and Mirrors. Looking Back opens to the public on Friday, September 11, with a reception with the artist from 5-7 pm and is on view through October 31 at Matéria Eastern Market, presented in collaboration with Century Partners.
OLAYAMI DABLS (b. 1948, Canton, MS) is the founder and curator of the MBAD African Bead Museum and Dabls African Bead Gallery in Detroit, Michigan. He established the museum to return art to its original purpose in African culture: not for entertainment or profit, but as a tool for emotional and cultural healing. Located at the intersection of Grand River and West Grand Boulevard, the museum and its surrounding installations invite visitors to explore the deep connections between material, memory, and identity.
Dabls’s practice, grounded in education and community engagement, reflects his belief that art can help restore balance and understanding. His murals across Detroit extend this vision, including a piece in Eastern Market depicting African women during enslavement and colonization, and another at Grand River and Warren that uses symbolic materials and imagery of snakes; ancient symbols of transformation and resilience.
In the 1970s, Dabls worked at the Afro-American Museum (now the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History), where he began questioning why African art and symbols were often viewed with fear. Confronting this legacy of colonization, he devoted himself to studying African material culture, ultimately founding MBAD in 1994 as a space to share art through an African-centered lens of history, spirit, and healing.
Olayami Dabls' work was recently presented in his first museum retrospective Detroit Cosmologies at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) from April 25 through July 12, 2026. Dabls is the 2022 Kresge Eminent Artist, honored for his transformative work as a visual storyteller, muralist, and cultural place-maker in Detroit.
Images:
Above. Olayami Dabls, Looking Back #1 (2025-2026) Acrylic, mirrors, aluminum, wood, on wood panel, 48 x 48 inches x 4 inches.
Below. Olayami Dabls, Looking Back #2 (2025-2026) Acrylic, mirrors, aluminum, on wood panel, 33 x 48 x 3 inches.
