Some homes whisper, others hum, but a collector’s home sings - a melody woven from objects, textures, and histories in joyful conversation. For our new online exhibition “The Collector’s Playground” we’ve created an inspiring setting at a collector’s home to show you the magic of collecting: the dance between past and present, between cultures, ideas, forms, and materials. This is “The Collector’s Playground” - a place where classical African works of art, Art Deco elegance, and contemporary wonders meet in a joyful, unexpected embrace. There is no hierarchy here, only a very personal juxtaposition of the ancient with the avant-garde in a private home. The softness of sculpted wooden artworks meets the cool gleam of glass, while the worn patinas stand boldly against the smooth lines of modern design.
At your playground, the rules are yours to write. Make your own connections. The beauty of the mix is its boundless possibility. Perhaps the Baule mask calls to you, its sculpted silence inviting quiet contemplation. Maybe it’s the geometry of the Kota reliquary figure, that might feel just right beside an abstract modernist painting. Or the unique Lumbu mask, which could spark something luminous in your home. As we highlighted in our January exhibition “Money Money Money”, antique African currencies, symbols of wealth, can easily be reimagined as objects of beauty in any home. Antique wooden headrests - intimate, personal, sculptural - offer a different kind of poetry. They balance utility and artistry, much like the group of prestige swords, their elegant abstract shapes more than weapons, but declarations of status and craftsmanship. A 1,000-year-old Calabar terracotta headrest from Nigeria sits quietly, a relic of another time, but as relevant as ever in the hands of the dreamer who places it just so. Then there is the rare seated Ibibio figure from Nigeria; an African Atlas, holding not the world but a treasure box, imbued with ancestral strength. It demands attention, invites interpretation, and reminds us that collecting is never passive; it is an act of storytelling. What do these objects say? How do they speak to one another, and to you?
And in this symphony of form and meaning, even the smallest artworks like a medicinal container - crafted with an architecture of their own - become sculptures in their own right. These are not merely things to possess, but to live with, to let shift and settle into the rhythm of daily life. This is not just about collecting. This is about creating - a world, a mood, a personal narrative woven from objects that resonate with you. This is an invitation. To collect, to curate, to compose a home that tells your story. To find that one piece - or perhaps several - that make your space sing. Because the joy of collecting is not only in the having, but in the discovering, in the endless play of connections waiting to be made.
So, mix. Match. Arrange and rearrange. Let art spark joy. Let it create happiness. And most of all - let it live, in your home and your life!