Funlola Coker works to create Slippery Space|s, a convergence of storytelling, language and writing, craft, and historical research. It is an investigation of liminality through the lens of Yoruba cosmology and Africanfuturism. Within it, Coker builds immersive installations of objects and sculptures that coordinate with original autobiographical short stories, prose, and poetry. In the Yoruba tradition, they tell stories through craft. For Coker, the acts of chiseling, carving, and braiding connect to memory. When contextualized into familiar forms and settings, they serve as portals that explore personal and collective histories in order to understand how they hold power over us.

[ Poem by Funlola Coker ]

Funlola Coker is a sculptor from Lagos, Nigeria. Funlola’s work follows research threads in the realm of recollection, imagination, and the surreal. Embracing the literary style of biomythography, Funlola builds narrative sculptures that call on nostalgic memories and moments of the mundane held dear. Liminal spaces are explored in the context of Yoruba cosmology and African Futurism. Using materials and techniques based in craft, these sculptures suggest dream-like and half-remembered spaces, yet sacred.

Coker’s work has been exhibited at the Fuller Craft Museum, TONE Gallery, the National Ornamental Metal Museum, including a solo exhibition at Brooklyn Metal Works. Collections include Brooklyn Metal Works and the National Ornamental Metal Museum. Coker has received awards such as the Thayer Fellowship from the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government (2022), the Society of Arts and Crafts Craft Innovation Jumpstarter Award (2023). Coker holds an MFA in Studio Art from the State University of New York at New Paltz and is currently a resident artist at Montserrat College of Art and Boston Center for the Arts.