Ayanfe Olarinde

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The self-taught multimedia visual artist born in 1996, based in Lagos, Nigeria, describes herself as a 'fireball', an artist, a learner and a student in the school of life. Her signature style of incorporating scribbles in her pieces have caught the attention of various collectors and like minded artists.

We had the opportunity of speaking with her about her journey in the creative world, inspirations, and future ambitions.

Focusing more on the individual herself, she expressed the qualities that make her unique, such as; her creativity, her mind, being genuine and in general just being an active individual. As we mentioned earlier, she is a multimedia visual artist, and some other fields she has delved into include; Photography, exploration of sound as a Dj and finally sculpting.

Photographed by Wale Adebisi

With the plethora of talent that has been birthed within the Nigerian creative industry, we had to find out who she admired the most

'The Most?! That’s hard, I’m not sure I have someone I admire the “most”, but I do have people whose path, work and story motivate me. I respect all artists striving in Naij, it’s not an easy space'.

Granted, it is a difficult question to answer with so much talent to chose from. However, when asked about her dream collaboration

'Hmm… dreamcollab right now. I’ll love to see a Simphiwe and Ayanfe collab.'

Rightfully as she mentioned, Nigeria is not an easy space to work in, and with that comes a lot of lessons learned, some lessons she learned

'Never doubt myself and how much greatness i can achieve, also take my health more seriously, rest in between. It's not that deep'

Photographed by Wale Adebisi

The artist has made various strides in her career so far, little ones, big ones they vary from completing a project to finishing a bottle of water in a day, to making it to the end of a year. However, the proudest moment so far for her was being able to bring WWYD to life. WWYD (What Would You Do) is a retro style clothing brand the artist launched in November 2022.

Photographed by Victor Edeh

We all know the struggles of being a creative and having to keep up with a certain level of consistency and quality. We got a few tips from the artist on how she deals with that phase of 'creative block', or self-doubt.

'I gist with God a lot. God being the spirit inside me. I talk to myself, I write to myself. I also remember where I once was and how I never want to go back there. These help me in recalibrating my brain. And when all these don’t seem to work well, I speak to friends or just do every other thing, like appreciate life. That pumps me up. Can’t be ungrateful, can’t complain.'

Her greatest source of inspiration can be summed up in 4 words/phrases; Path on earth, Self-Image, Collective History and Music. The artist gives off such a calming aura, so the idea of seeing herself in 5 years playing golf somewhere and learning a new language, is spot on.

Finally, to round it all up with some inspiring words

'Believe in yourself. It’s one of the kindest things you can do to/for yourself.'

Photographed by Wale Adebisi