Sacred
Group Exhibition featuring Sebastien Boko, Rachel Malaika & Thierry Tomety
OpenArtExchange is proud to present its newest group exhibition: Sacred, featuring works by three contemporary African artists. We warmly invite you to the opening on Saturday, June 27 at 15h00 at OpenArtExchange, Hoogstraat 85, Schiedam.
Sacred brings together newly arrived works at the gallery, including a new series of works made by Sebastien Boko during his spring residency at OpenArtExchange. We are also delighted to introduce Rachel Malaika and Thierry Tomety, two artists who joined the gallery on the occasion of this exhibition and whose works are now on view in the Netherlands for the first time.
The exhibition will be on view until Saturday, August 16th, 2026.
Sacred
Sacred explores the idea of what remains meaningful in a world marked by uncertainty, rapid change, and increasing social and ecological instability. The sacred is understood as the power, being, or realm understood to be at the core of existence, capable of transformating people’s lives and destinies. Sacred proposes that the sacred is not only a distant, fixed ideal, but also something that gathers in the present moment when it is approached with attention and care. It appears in forms of attachment, ritual, memory, intimacy, care, and refusal.
“The world needs your mind, the cosmos needs your heart, and the universe needs your soul. Nature needs your care, mankind needs your responsibility, and humanity needs your light" wrote Zimbabwean-Canadian philosopher, Matshona Dhliwayo. Drawing on the spirit of this reflection, Sacred invites visitors to reflect on what remains meaningful under these contemporary conditions of uncertainty. What do we still treat as untouchable, significant, or worthy of reverence? How do bodies, materials, gestures, images, and spaces become charged with symbolic or emotional weight? And how might sacredness function today not as a fixed category, but as a lived and evolving condition shaped by identity, politics, ecology, and belief?
Through distinct visual languages and mediums, ranging from textile and collage works to abstract sculptures, each artist engages with their own conception of the Sacred. Sebastien Boko presents semi-abstract sculptures in which sacred objects and symbolic forms occupy a central position, reflecting on systems of belief and cultural memory. In a series of self-portraits depicting herself in positions of power, combined with embroidery, and textile interventions, Rachel Malaika reclaims the place of women in histories of power and representation. Finally, Thierry Tomety explores the relationship between humanity and the universe through richly layered collage works.
Participating Artists
Sebastien Boko
1984, Benin
Sebastien Boko is an autodidact Beninese sculptor whose practice is rooted in familial transmission and West-African cultural heritage. Working primarily with woord, metal, and recycled materials, he creates semi-abstract sculptures that explore spirituality, identity, and collective memory. For Sacred, Boko will present works produced in residency at OpenArtExchange, where scared elements become central, through mask forms and crowning abstract forms. In his works, he combines his heritage with contemporary elements such as technology as an imprint threatening cultural identity.
Rachel Malaika
1986, DRC
Rachel Malaika is a visual artist from the DRC whose multidisciplinary practice spans photography, installation, and textile-based works. Defining herself as an activist photographer, she engages critically with representations of women and children in Congolese society. Malaika confronts the narratives perpetuated by colonial-era photography through textile interventions and embroidery. As such, she reclaims spaces of power, offering renewed visibility and agency to the female figures represented. In Sacred, she employs self-portraiture to challenge the historical erasure of African women, restoring their visibility within narratives of power, memory, and representation.
Thierry Tomety
1993, Togo
Thierry Tomety is an emerging Togolese visual artist, whose practice is rooted in introspective processes and the exploration of the subconscious. Working primarily in sculpture and collage, Tomety investigates the invisible connections that bind individuals to each other and to the natural world. Through layered compositions, combining paper, fibres and cardboard, he depicts subtle, shadow-like figures that emerge in moments of embrace, community and intimacy. In the context of Sacred, his works reflect on the search for meaning, suggesting hat profound forms of connection may themselves constitute a sacred experience.