Mitochondria Gallery presents Land that Raised Us, a group exhibition featuring new works by Okoye Chukwuemeka John, Matthew Eguavoen, Martin Jakaila, and Hirwa Bless Aine Jovial.
Okoye Chukwuemeka John. I am just a boy. Oil on canvas. 2026.
The exhibition examines the relationship between place and the formation of masculine identity. Here, land is understood not as a passive backdrop but as an active force through which culture, memory, and belonging are negotiated.
Martin Jakaila. Rocky Garden. Acrylic on canvas. 2026
Together, the artists consider how men come to understand themselves through their ties to homeland, city, village, street, and border. Their works ask what it means to grow within environments marked by continuity and fracture, by inherited traditions and the pressures of modern life.
At its center, the exhibition proposes that identity develops through an ongoing dialogue with the places that hold us. Land becomes a site of instruction, memory, challenge, and possibility. It shapes how we move, how we remember, and how we imagine ourselves in relation to others. In this sense, the land does not simply surround us, it raises us.
For the exhibition preview, please contact us at [email protected]
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 2nd. 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm.
Public Viewing: May 2nd - May 30th, 2026
Address: 2220 Commerce Street #D, Houston, TX. 77002
Phone: +1.832.271.0193
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