A Tale of Shared Experiences - Meet the Artists Whose Works We've Selected.

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. Find out who they are and what they’ve lined up for the exhibition.

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 human figures covered in butterfly patterns. The butterfly elements are symbolic of man’s progression from chains to freedom, dependence to independence, social injustice to equity and ignorance to enlightenment, just like the caterpillar’s metamorphosis 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 them will cause more women to rise in pursuit of their dreams like hot air balloons.

Osaru Obaseki

Meet Osaru Obaseki, a multi-disciplinary artist from Edo state, Nigeria. While her artistic journey began with fluid painting, she has since gone on to explore other art forms. Her time at the Nosona studio under the Edo global platform helped her hone her skills in handling different art mediums, particularly, sand.

Osaru’s creative brilliance has earned her a spot amongst the fastest-rising African contemporary artists. She was numbered among the Rele Arts Foundation Young Contemporaries in 2018 and exhibited under Rele Gallery as a Young Contemporary in 2019. Her works also featured in the “Re-entanglement” exhibition organized by the University of Cambridge and Nosona studios.

Osaru fancies various art forms but favours painting and sculpting more. She uses sand and acrylic as a way to merge ancient and modern civilizations. Also worthy of note is her use of bronze through lost wax casting to create contemporary art that highlights modern-day issues.

Come see Osaru's series "Standing in Her Place", at A Tale of Shared Experiences. By combining sand sourced from Igun street in Benin city and acrylic, Osaru created colourful paintings that question society's unrealistic beauty standards and their impact on women, especially those in the media spotlight. Her ultimate goal is to convince women that they are worth more than their physical imperfections or perfection.

Olamide Ogunade

Meet Olamide Ogunade, a Fine Arts student at Yaba College of Technology. While his fascination with art began when he was a kid, his mastery has been down to rigorous training and research.

Olamide is versatile as his body of work reflects several art mediums like a ballpoint pen, acrylic, oil paint, charcoal and pencil. He uses these tools to translate his personal experiences and observations into stimulating art. Little wonder global art collectors covet his art pieces. His works have also featured in exhibitions like Stop, Listen, at the CFHILL gallery, Sweden, and Africa First at the Valerius gallery, Luxembourg. And in 2020, Olamide won the Tecno Art challenge.

Come see Olamide’s series “In Search of Thyself”, at A Tale of Shared Experiences. The series interrogates the social construction of masculinity. Olamide depicts his figures with expressive and emotive gazes which evoke self-awareness.

Joe Obamina

Meet Joe Obamina, a multi-disciplinary artist with two art degrees from Auchi Polytechnic and the University of Benin. Joe joined the Nosona Art Studio under the management of Edo Global Art Foundation in 2017 and remains an active member to date.

Propelled by a burning passion to provoke thoughts through creativity, Joseph delved into multiple ventures as an illustrator, instrumentalist, sculptor and speed painter. His works grip you instantly and upon further scrutiny, reveal deep meanings.

A Tale of Shared Experiences will feature Joe’s series tagged “The Essence of Lassie.” Drawing on symbols from African mythology, Joe depicts African women as goddesses and royals using pixelated portraits. The pixelated elements form feminine figures when viewed from a distance. However, when assessed closely, they reveal specific stories of marginalized women.

Sophia Azoige

Meet Nigerian-born visual artist, Sophia Azoige. Driven by the desire to highlight the beauty of everyday human experiences through her works, Sophia taps into her personal stories and other people’s multi-layered narratives to create intriguing art.

While her figures are deliberately loosely detailed, Sophia’s inventive incorporation of textiles in her paintings enhances her subjects and infuses them with emotions.

Sophia lives in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where she is currently pursuing an art degree at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education. She had her first exhibition in 2020 and participated in an art salon at the Delaroke Gallery, Port Harcourt in the same year. She also recently took part in a group exhibition at the “Dis-contented Realities, Urevbu Contemporary,” Memphis.

We’ll be displaying Sophia’s works at A Tale of Shared Experiences. She put forward a series she calls “Inhale and Exhale.” Her entries centre on issues of self-awareness and self-love in our contemporary society and seek to present alternative ways of living and being. By combining discarded fabric with acrylic and critical inquiry with irony, Sophia poses these thematic questions “How do we love ourselves if we cannot be who we really are?” and “Are we living our lives or the life people want us to live?”

Victor Olaoye

Meet Victor Olaoye, a contemporary artist from Ogun State, Nigeria. Using charcoal, acrylic and local dye (Adire), Victor creates art that examines the relationship between human bodies and worn clothing by capturing moments and people’s forms transferred into clothing that represents their experiences and emotions. By erasing the clothed bodies and leaving the clothes, his works raise questions around clothing and its role in constructing human identity.

Victor’s works won him first prize at the Life in My City Art Festival, LIMCAF, 2019, and were also exhibited at the Rele Young Contemporary, 2021 event. At A Tale of Shared Experiences, he’ll be displaying his series “Conversations and Relationships.” Using dyeing techniques, Victor explores how identity is expressed through clothing and the forms of relationships in our present-day society.

We can’t wait to have you at A Tale of Shared Experiences.