Some milestones you plan for; others arrive as an email you read three times before believing. Mine said that two of my works — Sanctuary of Nature and Stillness in the Storm — had been selected for Boomer Gallery's Dreams & Nightmares exhibition at 150 Tooley Street, in the shadow of Tower Bridge, chosen alongside 200 artists from a pool of more than 2,000 international submissions.
Why these two works
Sanctuary of Nature was born from the collective fear we all carried through the pandemic years — an eye finding refuge behind wet green leaves, nature as shelter. Stillness in the Storm is its counterweight: the quiet strength we find inside chaos. Both live permanently in the Aworan collection, where you can read each piece's full story.
What selection actually feels like
Validation is a strange fuel. As a self-taught artist who came to photography through my story, standing in a London gallery watching strangers stop in front of my work rearranged something in me. Art is a dialogue — and an exhibition is the first time you hear the other side of the conversation out loud.
To be selected is not just a professional achievement; it is proof that visual storytelling transcends borders.
Practical lessons for your first gallery show
- Print for the room, not the screen. A photograph that glows on Instagram can die on a wall. Test prints early.
- Framing is part of the artwork. The gallery's textured brick and timber walls changed how my monochrome pieces read — simple white frames saved them.
- Attend everything. The private view is where collectors, curators and press actually talk to you. My later press coverage, now collected on press and awards, traces back to conversations at openings.
- Document the walls. Installation photographs became the backbone of this very article.
What came after
Momentum compounds. The London showing led to a solo exhibition of Aworan in Lagos — where In Thought found a private collector — then the RBSA Summer Show and BAFA. The full timeline lives on my exhibitions page.
If you're an emerging artist wondering whether to submit to your first open call: submit. And if you'd like the deeper how-to, read my guide to finding and winning open call exhibitions. For commissions and everything commercial, that side of my life lives at Camera Boss.
Work with me. For fine-art prints and exhibition enquiries, contact me here. For weddings, editorial and lifestyle photography across the UK and Nigeria, visit CameraBoss.co.uk.