Artist Spotlight: Abe Ogulende

Header Image: "The Big Splashh", 2020. Acrylic on canvas with gloss varnish.

If the works of Nigerian-born Abe Ogulende had to be summarised into one word, that word will be whimsical. There’s a child-like sense of play that comes from his use of colors and shapes. In one painting, he even incorporates crayon scribbles amongst his candy-colored backdrop. He often paints portraits of his subjects confidently posing within their environment and features many different touchpoints from the various cultures he’s experienced and lived with.

Ogulende paints his subjects as featureless, solid black people. Of this choice, he said he is “imploring the audience to see themselves as characters in my work, exploring what it means to be Nigerian, to be African today and to express that confidently. I refer to my style as “modern Afro-minimalism”, stripping the unnecessary elements of personhood, and unveiling the core of our human identity.”

Check out more of Abe Ogulende’s works on his website.