Musical sculptures by Temitayo Ogunbiyi installed in the Noguchi Museum’s indoor-outdoor galleries

Temitayo Ogunbiyi: You will wonder if we would have been friends

June 18, 2025 – November 2, 2025

As part of its 40th anniversary programming, The Noguchi Museum is pleased to present the work of Temitayo Ogunbiyi (b. 1984), in her first museum exhibition in the United States. Featuring newly commissioned sculptures and a selection of work from throughout Ogunbiyi’s seventeen-year career, the exhibition is installed among Noguchi’s permanent installation in the first floor galleries and outdoor garden. 

Ogunbiyi describes her work as “responding to and forging dialogues between global current events, anthropological histories, design, and botanical cultures.” Interested in how play can serve humanity, Ogunbiyi has been researching the life and practice of Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) for several years, exploring the ways in which his pioneering work in open-ended, non-directive play expands the civic reach of sculpture. Building on Noguchi’s complex biography and the ways in which it manifests in his play sculpture designs, Ogunbiyi has created a site-specific, interactive sculpture for play, sculptures that can be used for music making, and an outdoor installation that features input from the greater museum community.

Play sculpture by Temitayo Ogunbiyi
Sweet Mother, with two paintings by Temitayo Ogunbiyi and drawings displayed in a chest of drawers
Sculpture by Temitayo Ogunbiyi, an undulating floor-to-ceiling column of grinding stones stacked...
Detail of 'Sweet Mother' stamped on sculpture by Temitayo Ogunbiyi
Guests exploring musical sculptures by Temitayo Ogunbiyi installed in the Noguchi Museum’s indoor-outdoor...
Copper grinding stone with inscribed messages, among Isamu Noguchi’s 'Practice Rocks in Placement'...
Photos: Chanel Matsunami Govreau. © Temitayo Ogunbiyi / INFGM / ARS

About Temitayo Ogunbiyi

Born in Rochester, New York, in 1984, Temitayo Ogunbiyi grew up in the outskirts of Philadelphia. Her work explores influences ranging from Yoruba hairstyling and Victorian hairwork to botanical forms and transnational travel. Now living in Lagos, Nigeria, Ogunbiyi developed an interest in playground design through her experience raising her children in this city of over 20 million people, where she struggled to find public playgrounds. This, coupled with her own experiences growing up as a first-generation immigrant in the United States, born to Jamaican and Nigerian parents, influences her creation of public play sculptures. These sculptures aim to present play and exercise as a right for all children and adults. Past playground projects include You will find Lagos in London Living (2023) at South London Gallery in London, England; You will forge paths beyond your grandmother’s imaginings (2023) at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Germany; You will follow the Rhein and compose play (2023) at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland; You will play in nuance and grow community (2022) at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands; Giocherai nel quotidiano, correndo (You will play in the everyday, running) and Suonerai nel quotidiano, accelerando (You will play in the everyday, accelerating) (2020) at the Museo Madre in Naples, Italy; and You will find playgrounds among palm trees (2018) at Freedom Park playground in Lagos, Nigeria. Upcoming projects include solo exhibitions at The Arts Club of Chicago (September 2025) and the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio (2026).

Temitayo Ogunbiyi: You will wonder if we would have been friends is made possible through major support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Generous support has been received from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. The exhibition is also supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council and from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.