Religious Imagery in Yoruba Sculpture: Form And Style in the Works of Adebisi Akanji

This study examines religious imagery in Yoruba sculpture through selected works by Adebisi Akanji, a prominent sculptor associated with the Osogbo Art Movement and the visual development of the Osun–Osogbo Sacred Grove. Although widely recognised for his contributions to contemporary Yoruba sculpture, Akanji has received limited scholarly attention in formal and stylistic analyses of his religious works. The study investigates how Yoruba religious concepts are expressed through sculptural form, symbolism, materiality, and environmental integration.Using a qualitative art-historical approach, the research employs formal, contextual, and thematic analysis. Data were collected through field observation, photographic documentation, and literature review. Five sculptures were selected: Èlà, Ìyá M??p??, Olúfà Tákòtábò, Egungun Komololu, and Ilédì O?tótóo. These works represent aspects of Yoruba religious imagery, including divinity, spiritual authority, sacred guardianship, ancestral continuity, and ritual space.Findings show that Akanji employs abstraction, monumentality, symbolic proportion, and environmental integration to convey religious meanings. Rather than naturalistic representation, his sculptures function as visual expressions of Yoruba cosmology, spiritual belief, and cultural memory. The study concludes that Akanji’s sculptures synthesise Yoruba religious philosophy, environmental aesthetics, and contemporary sculptural practice, contributing to scholarship on Yoruba art and the preservation of indigenous visual traditions.   Received:  19 May  2026 / Accepted: 30 June  2026 / Published: July 2026