Since its debut in the Nigerian visual art scene in 2022, Windsor Gallery, a dynamic contemporary art institution dedicated to amplifying West African and pan-African voices on the global stage, has continued to make bold statements with its projects.
One of such projects is its Artists in Residence programme, which creates a space for artists from across the continent to live, work, exchange ideas and engage with new cultural environments.
It is in furtherance of that commitment to building meaningful cross-border conversations around African art that the gallery is featuring Hako Hankson, a Cameroonian-born contemporary artist, at the latest Windsor Gallery Artists in Residence programme.
Hako, who has arrived in Lagos, is joining Douala, his base in Cameroon, for the six-week artist residency.
Speaking on the rationale for the programme, the gallery explained that Hako’s residency in Lagos forms part of ongoing effort to strengthen the connections between African artists, audiences and institutions – creating opportunities for exchange that move beyond borders and encourage new ways of seeing and understanding the continent through art.
Offering more details, the gallery said that over the course of six weeks, Hako will immerse himself in Lagos, developing new work while engaging with the city’s creative community, its people, histories and constantly evolving cultural landscape.
However, the residency will culminate in a solo exhibition at Windsor Gallery from October, where Hako will present the body of work developed during his time in Lagos and offer audiences an opportunity to encounter his practice through the lens of the new environment.
The highly anticipated solo exhibition by Hako, which is entitled ‘Hako’s Allegory’, will open on October 31, 2026, from, 1pm – 6pm at Windsor Gallery at #4C Goriola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
On display would be the works created by Hako during the six-week Artist-In-Residence in Lagos.
Offering insights on the exhibition in its curatorial note, Windsor Gallery asked, ‘What if what we see is only a shadow of what is real’?
It further used Plato’s Allegory of the Cave to explain Hako’s Allegory’. In Plato’s case, the gallery said that ‘a group of prisoners are confined to a cave, able to see only shadows projected onto a wall before them. Having known nothing else, they mistake these shadows for reality.
‘When one prisoner is finally released and encounters the world beyond the cave, the experience is disorienting. What he believed to be true is revealed to have been only a limited perception of truth’.
With the above in mind, Hako’s Allegory takes the philosophical proposition as its point of departure.
‘Through a new technique developed on plexiglass, Hako Hanson creates works that exist between image and reflection, visibility and obscurity, surface and depth. The material becomes more than a medium; it becomes a metaphor for perception itself,’ Windsor Gallery stated in its curatorial note.
Plexiglass, according to the gallery, allows the image to be seen while simultaneously revealing the space beyond it and as light passes through, reflections interfere, and the viewer’s own position alters the work. What appears fixed becomes unstable.
The intrigue is that what seems immediately visible begins to question itself and like the shadows in Plato’s cave, Hako’s images ask viewers to consider whether seeing is the same as knowing.
‘The works operate within this tension between appearance and reality. They invite the viewer to look beyond the immediate image, to question the assumptions that shape what we perceive and to consider how much of our understanding is constructed by the limitations of our own perspective.
‘The journey out of Plato’s cave is not simply a movement from darkness into light. It is a confrontation with the possibility that everything we previously understood may have been incomplete’.
Hako’s works occupy this threshold and do not offer a definitive reality beyond the surface. Instead, they create a space in which reality remains fluid, fragmented and open to interpretation. The viewer is therefore not merely looking at the work, but participating in it – moving around it, seeing through it, seeing themselves reflected within it, and continually negotiating between what is presented and what is perceived.
But the allegory may not be about leaving the cave, but recognising that we are still inside one.
There are also reasons to see Hako’s Allegory at Windsor Gallery from October 31, 2026.
The self-taught Cameroonian contemporary artist is gifted. He works across painting, drawing, sculpture and mixed media, amid a practice that is deeply influenced by the traditions, rituals, mythology and spiritual heritage of West Cameroon, as well as the realities of contemporary African life.
The son of a sculptor and musician associated with the Royal Palace, Hankson grew up surrounded by masks, statuettes, totems and ceremonial objects. These early experiences became central to his artistic vocabulary. Although he trained as a car mechanic, he pursued art independently, developing his practice through observation, experimentation and engagement with the artistic community in Douala.
His works combine figures, masks, animals, symbols and expressive gestures, exploring memory, identity, spirituality, migration and everyday life. He has cited artists including: Jean-Michel Basquiat, AntoniTàpies and Jean Dubuffet as influences, while emphasizing the importance of energy and gesture in his own work.
Hankson has exhibited internationally, including with OH Gallery in Dakar, Primo Marella Gallery in Italy and Switzerland, and L’Atelier 21 in Casablanca. He participated in the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024 and his works are held in collections including the Fondation Cartier, MACAAL, Fondation H, Fondation Donwahi and the Benetton Collection.
In 2013, he founded the In and Off Art Center in Douala, supporting artistic exchange and emerging artists. His practice continues to connect Cameroonian cultural heritage with contemporary global experiences, creating a distinctive visual language rooted in memory, spirituality and human experience.
With all these going for him, ‘Hako’s Allegory’ will definitely live up the viewers expectations.
Once again, the solo exhibition will open on October 31, 2026, at Windsor Gallery at #4C Goriola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.