A Tale of Shared Experiences - Artist Profile: James Adebayo.
A Tale of Shared Experiences is an art exhibition that explores the themes of gender, self, and identity. From July 17 to August 31, 2021, Artpedia Gallery will display the works of six young and brilliant Nigerian artists. Learn about one of them below.
James Adebayo
Meet James Adebayo, a talented Nigerian visual artist. Having always loved art, James began his career in hyper-realistic drawing. However, double vision, an eye condition that made it difficult for him to properly capture little details hampered his progress. In a light bulb moment, he got the idea to change direction and delved into studies about historical changes in Africa. James began telling the African story using his family’s pictures as references.
With acrylic, James paints his subjects as humans covered in butterfly patterns. The butterfly elements are symbolic of man’s progression from chains to freedom, dependence to independence, social injustice to justice and ignorance to enlightenment, just like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.
Come see James' "Hot Air Balloon" series at A Tale of Shared Experiences. His paintings explore common problems women face like marginalisation and how intensifying the conversations about these issues will cause more women to rise in pursuit of their dreams like hot air balloons.