Chemistry graduate turned visual artist Bukola Orioye celebrates people of colour and African values in his paintings.
ARTISTS have different thematic preoccupations, and Bukola Orioye is no different. The 29-year-old painter documents the beauty and virtues of coloured persons. His brushstrokes that revisit the past also project current societal issues and preview the future. Interestingly, Orioye’s focus on black people coincides with a period when fine art is at the forefront of 21st-century African cultural reawakening at home and in the Diaspora.
The naturally talented artist from Ido-Osi, Ekiti State, has several paintings attesting to his interest in the ongoing black renaissance. Some of his works depict the challenges of people going through conflicting choices. Orioye notes in one of such works, ‘Seek Within VII series’, that when someone is torn “between the world that speaks the verity in falsehoods and our inner tone that embodies the real verity in chaos,” mental intelligence is on trial.
In the painting, Orioye brings the past into visual memory by celebrating men’s hairstyle of the 1980s and1990s. And with a texture of 21st-century black consciousness being emboldened by artists of African descent, Orioye’s brushstrokes in his ‘Seek Within’ series and ‘Black Strive with Pride’ also preview the future in fashion and lifestyle. In the two paintings, the artist applies past visual icons to stimulate a diverse cultural identity of resilience and timelessness.
“This body of work goes through every aspect of life,” the artist states. “We must seek tone-mindfulness to understand what we’re capable of and how we can achieve it.”
He notes that “the change we seek, the love we ask, and the way we anticipate the world to be, must start with us laboriously working for it. The thing you ask starts with you. The question is, are you set or going to flee?”
Notably, Orioye’s chosen path is opening doors for him within and outside Nigeria. In the short period of his young career, the artist has shown internationally in ‘Portraits’ at Ore Ofe Art Gallery, U.K, and ‘Florescence’ at Mitochondria Gallery, Houston. TX, U.S., this year.
Orioye’s focus on highlighting beauty and Africanness seems inexhaustible as another of his works, ‘Black Consciousness,’ celebrates African colours. In the painting, Orioye captures a young lady in a sensual pose without exposing any flesh. Her hairstyle is not unlike that the writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has kept on the fashion front burner.
The artist’s creative energy extends to deploying poetry in supporting some of his paintings. He writes: “I am black! I am a versatile reminder of hearth and ice.Our forefathers cry, for our bequest has been taken. Our reminiscences are shattered to dirt./While our heritage was taken as a present.Let our blacks strive once more in pride.Displaying the sweetness and sonority of our heritage. A delicate reminder of our bravery and chastity. The difficulties and achievements of my precursor are no forgotten story. Where should I evolve from? When I’ve called my origin a taradiddle and myself an illusion Should I seek my neighbour’s verity before mine or the other way round? “The world isn’t balanced! They say Perhaps our knowledge of the scale isn’t balanced moreover. Since we’d rather seek a greener pasture nearly than water ours, We would rather forget our home to seek treasures in a foreign land. After all, the lawn is greener where it’s watered, And treasures are found where the land is dug.”
Though he has now started flexing his artistic muscles, Orioye, who was born and raised in Osogbo, Osun State, did not begin life in the arts. His dream of being an artist happened after his first degree in Chemistry. He had planned to pursue a Master’s degree in Chemistry at the University of Ibadan in 2019, where his passion for art found a way through.
He started with a mentorship under the tutelage of an established professional, Tope Fatunmbi, at TopFat Art Gallery, Adamasingba, Ibadan, Oyo State. After this, he started his professional practice in 2020.
In search of a distinct signature, Orioye’s brushstrokes found interest in societal issues and life struggles. He then expanded his themes to capture the beauty and culture of people of colour, primarily focusing on women. Slowly but steadily, the chemist-turned-artist will get there.
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