Olamide Ogunade

About the artist

Olamide Ogunade is a visual artist who was born in 1996 in Ogun State, Nigeria, and currently lives and works in Surulere in Lagos, Nigeria. Ogunade’s fascination with art began at a young age and after completing school at the Select International College in Lagos, Nigeria, he went on to complete a degree in Fine Art at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos, Nigeria in 2021.

Ogunade’s ouevre encompasses a range of media including acrylic, oil, charcoal and graphite on paper or canvas. He often starts by sketching his figures using charcoal, and then creates bright-coloured, painted backdrops around them as a way of elevating the depiction of their skin and bodily form. The use of vibrant colours and hues in his work represents the abundant potential and breadth of individuality that Ogunade believes his home continent possesses.

Ogunade’s work has been exhibited in international art fairs including Frieze Art Fair in London and Los Angeles, Investec Cape Town Art Fair in Cape Town, and the Armory Show in New York City. Ogunade has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Spain, Sweden, Luxembourg, England, South Africa and Nigeria.


Sources of inspiration
 

Ogunade’s practice is personal and social at the same time. He draws inspiration from his own lived experiences as well as aspects of contemporary society such as corruption, greed, self-esteem issues and ‘the inferiority complex suffered by [some] Africans.’ Ogunade uses his art to shine a light on these social ills in the hopes of stimulating conversation and eventually change.

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Artist intentions

Through his work, Ogunade maintains a record of the events, cultural values, and norms in contemporary Nigerian society. The figures in his work are figures he observes in his own life. The completed pieces are decorated with bubbles surrounding his characters to signify the transience of life and its troubles. Bubbles have now become a leitmotif in Ogunade’s work – to him, the pressures that we face are temporary - like bubbles, they appear and then eventually disappear.

Maswana views his work as a way of touching souls visually. He hopes that his work creates a need for his viewers to pause – to connect with their own soul for a moment and ‘to see the beauty of the people I paint as I see it.’
 

Going forward

‘I want my work to connect with people around the world and to bring people together through visual storytelling. As I grow as an artist, I want to be featured in reputable gallery and museum collections so that my art can add value to society” – Olamide Ogunade