Peju Layiwola is a visual artist whose works engage with the theme of art pillage from Africa through her first solo exhibition, Benin 1897.com: Art and the Restitution Question, held in Lagos and Ibadan in 2010. She works in a variety of materials although privileging metal in her practice. More recently, she explored textile production processes through indigo dyeing and resist methods in her exhibition titled Indigo Reimagined in 2019 (Lagos). Layiwola‘s artist in residency in Bayreuth explored the textile collection at the Iwalewahaus, culminating in the Academy Lunch lecture that brought her two areas of interest together titled Appareling and Art Stripping: Questions Around Cloth and Looted Art on 28 June 2022.

Layiwola has served as President of the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA), USA, from 2020-2022 and serves on the board of the Yemisi Shyllon Museum supervisory council in Lagos, Nigeria. She is a recipient of several international grants and has extensive academic publications. Layiwola is a professor of art at the University of Lagos and runs an artist-led platform, Masterartclasses, for preserving African culture and online teaching on artistic traditions.