Twins Seven-Seven Nigeria, 1944-2011

Born Taiwo Olaniyi Oyewale-Toyeje Oyelale Osuntoki in 1944 in Ogidi, Nigeria, he was the only surviving child of seven sets of twins, all of whom died in infancy. His survival marked him as an abiku child—a child “born to die,” believed to be one of a tribe of spirit children. His unusual lineage gave rise to the name “Twins Seven-Seven,” or “Ibeji Meje-Meje” in Yoruba, which he adopted as a personal identity and his artistic name. 

His father, Aatoyeje Oyekale, was a Muslim from Ibadan, descended from the royal line of Baale Osuntoki, Olubadan of Ibadan between 1895-1897. His mother, Mary Ifatunke, was a Christian from Ogidi and a prosperous cloth merchant whose family had strong associations with the Imole cult, a Yoruba spiritual society. His early exposure with his family’s blended religious traditions and label as an abiku child had major influences on his later artistic explorations. As a teenager, Twins briefly attended a teacher-training college but dropped out in 1962. He chose a life on the road, first joining a travelling theatre troupe and then dancing with a medicine show that toured villages selling a so-called “Superman Tonic” of river water, spices, and caramelised sugar. Twins drew in crowds on the street with his mesmorising dancing as a way to attract potential customers. It was while travelling with this group that he first arrived in Osogbo in 1962.

Twins Seven-Seven first encountered Ulli and Georgina Beier in 1963 when he gatecrashed a party at the Mbari Mbayo Club in Osogbo. Ulli Beier, a German professor and writer who taught at the University of Ibadan’s Department of Extramural Studies, and Georgina (then Georgina Betts), a British artist, were instrumental in creating Mbari Mbayo as an experimental cultural space. So struck was Ulli Beier by his charisma that he offered to top the wages Twins Seven-Seven had been earning on the road, assuring him that a place could be found for his talents in Osogbo.

In August 1964, Georgina Beier organised the Third Experimental Art School in Osogbo. Anyone curious to try art could join, and the open invitation drew in many of the young people who would become the pioneers of the Osogbo Art Movement, including Twins Seven-Seven, Jimoh Buraimoh, Muraina Oyelami, Rufus Ogundele, Adebisi Fabunmi, and Jacob Afolabi. Twins Seven-Seven, twenty years old and without any prior artistic training, wandered into the workshop with little else to do. During the workshop, Ulli Beier singled out Twins as the most remarkable, whose “bizarre and playful imagination” he compared to Nigerian novelist Amos Tutuola. After the five-day workshop, Georgina selected a small group of participants to continue working together as full-time studio artists. Supported with small stipends, materials, and mentoring, they developed their own styles and techniques over the next two years, from 1964 until December 1966, when the Beiers left Nigeria. During this time, the artists worked in studios at the Osogbo Museum and at the Beiers’ residence, creating an environment that fostered experimentation and collaboration.

His first solo exhibition was held in March 1965 at Mbari Mbayo in Osogbo, on the occasion of the third anniversary of Mbari Mbayo. Soon after, his work began to circulate internationally. He exhibited at the Neue Münchener Galerie, Munich (1965); National Museum of Ethnography, Prague (1965), Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1967); University of Sussex (1967); Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles (1969); Camden Arts Centre, London (1969), and the Commonwealth Institute (1970). From the 1970s onward, Twins Seven-Seven’s work was steadily presented by leading museums across the world, marking him as one of the most widely exhibited Nigerian artist of his generation. He exhibited in major European institutions such as the Musée de l’Homme, Paris (1970), the Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna (1971), and the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Berlin (1979), as well as at the Second Indian Triennial in New Delhi (1971). During this period he also established a strong presence in the United States, exhibiting at the Studio Museum in Harlem (1970), Union Carbide Gallery, New York (1972), the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago (1974), the National Gallery of African Art, Washington, D.C. (1974), the Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento (1974), the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh (1976), and Howard University (1977). He participated in artist residencies in the United States including Merced College in California (1972) and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine (1974). 

His exuberant personality extended into his personal life: known for his flamboyant fashion, he was a dancer and celebrated musician with songs that topped the radio charts. He was married to fourteen wives simultaneously, among them the artist Nike Davies-Okundaye, who built her own celebrated career. Twins’ home in Osogbo became what he called a “cultural embassy” where he regularly welcomed visiting celebrities and foreign dignitaries. Over the following decades, his work has since been included in landmark exhibitions such as Magiciens de la Terre (Centre Pompidou, 1989), The Short Century (Villa Stuck, 2005), the Venice Biennale (2024), Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club (Chrysler Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, and Toledo Museum of Art, 2024) and, most recently, Nigerian Modernism (Tate Modern, 2025). Today, Twins Seven-Seven is remembered as one of the most original figures of modern African art, a self-taught visionary whose vivid imagination and energy carried Yoruba traditions into a modern global context.