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What inspired your latest project?
Solitude. My latest project was titled “Renaya”, and is aseries of 10 sketch-like paintings documenting the solitary contemplations of apersonality named “Renaya”. The idea is to make the viewer understand that intheir moments of solitude, when they seem the most alone – especially inmoments when they are contemplating change – they are really not alone, asRenaya is in her room alone, too, by her window, experiencing the same things.
I intend to give my viewers a sense of shared companionshipwith humanity, so their solitude doesn’t necessarily translate to loneliness orennui.
The works were done in ink, acrylic, pastel, and newspaperclippings on watercolor paper.
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How did you get into your creative field?
I was never really out of it. I have been making art since asfar back as I can remember.
But if you mean as a career, I got into being an artist as acareer in two phases;
Firstly, by a seeming lack of options (I wanted to be a medicaldoctor, but that wasn’t working. So, I remembered I could draw, and I could make some money from that. This was 13 years ago. I was seventeen, and in 200Lstudying Agriculture).
The second phase was 5 years later, when I quit my 9-5 as a creative writer at a media & tech company in 2016 to face my art full-time. I could no longer work an office job, as I was convinced it would drain my souland literally kill me.
Making art on the other hand, came naturally to me. I havebeen a full-time artist since then.
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Can you describe your creative process?
I am mostly inspired by the human condition, and I seek to inspire awe, and drive curiosity. Sometimes, I treat these two as mutually exclusive concepts during conceptualization, and sometimes, I treat them as one and the same thing.
When I intend to inspire awe in my viewer, I do so with figurative paintings on befitting backgrounds – in a manner that makes the viewer feel seen on a scale that is larger than life, hence reminding them oftheir own importance. More like Ayn Rand’s characters in her novels, and along the lines of her objectivist philosophy.
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When I intend to drive curiosity, it is a little more complexas I could use a more diverse range of visual representations. But my purestform of driving curiosity with no intention of doing any other thing; is me makingabstract works using acrylic layers that create a sense of adventure and purecuriosity in the viewer. More in the line of the “Abstraktes Bild” paintings by Gerard Richter.
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Many times, I combine these two intentions by figures on complex backgrounds, sometimes even infusing poetry and philosophy in obvious text.
I work mostly in acrylic on canvas. And for my sketch-like paintings, I also use ink, pastel, and mixed media. Most of my work is done in my studio, and I mostly use real-life models for my figurative work.
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Do you have a favorite piece of work you’ve created? What makes it so special to you?
The piece that comes to mind is “Untitled I”, I painted it in December 2023, and I sold it to a collector on the 1st of January,2024. It’s the first artwork on my Instagram page. I love it because it was the first artwork I painted after my debut solo exhibition titled “Fountainhead” in2023, and it so adequately symbolized the beginning of something new and different for me and my work.
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Are there any projects in the works that you would like to share with us?
Yes, it’s called the Chachakilla project. It is my bold mission to foster African unity and create an Afrikanist heritage by painting monumental, visually striking murals —24 feet tall — across all 54 African countries. Each mural would blend figure and fabrik, very much like my “Untitled” series; to celebrate indigenous identity, pride, and the shared memory of the continent. These murals would beenhanced by AI, augmented reality, and interactive storytelling.
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We have moved past the ideation stage, and are currently in the process of seekingout partners. All the details can be found on my website; www.inioluwa.art
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