Oladunke A. Ibrahim

Resident of Lagos, Nigeria. Graduated from the famous Yaba College of Technology where  he obtained his Higher National Diploma (HND) in Painting. Inspiration & Motivation: "African's intrinsic love for indigenous festivities is acclaimed worldwide. I believe that the portrayal of my nativity is grossly in-exhaustive without the exploration of this renowned aspect of our socio-cultural life. We live festival; we thrive in them. It is our contribution to the pool of global cultural wealth. Inherent in these festivities is the air of mystery, unfathomableness. To convey such inexplicable aura, representational abstract is the key: One that must capture the evident beauty, the rhythmic unity, mysticism, and spirituality of the festive subjects. To delve into "realism" will result in a mismatch. My style of approach seeks to probe into the simplistic originality-sometimes, naivety -of these subjects, unique and telling..... thematically boundless". In the Piece :"The Festival" - "Every festival has a common denomination: drums, songs, and dances. They are the universal elements in any African festival. In my ethnic background, you drum, sing and dance to convoluting and cascading rhythms. The drummers, the singers and the dancers form inseparable frenzy of writhing forms, merging esoterically into an inextricable whole. I have explored this aspect in my piece- "the festival".....
PA-AI09-01
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The Festival (2009), 
Oil on Canvas, 
48"x48"