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OLUMIDE ONADIPE (born 1982) is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose idiosyncratic sculptures are built using diverse media including plastics. Olumide presents sculptural works which are allusions to socio-political issues. But these physical commentaries on events, social customs, and malaises that affect Nigerian society are rarely explicit. In most cases, they vaguely suggest something through their form. In a few others, it is only the title of the work that open the door to possible interpretations and readings by the viewer. He believes that behind the literary interpretation of objects and events is a multiplicity of encrypted connotation. Olumide is fascinated by textures and environmental themes, and expresses this fascination through playful iterations.
He studied arts and education at the University of Nigeria Nsukka and the University of Lagos, where he graduated with a master's degree in 2012. He has taken part in group exhibitions in London, Germany, Ghana, Nigeria and USA. Olumide's major collaborations include an artist residency and Open Studios exhibition with Arthouse Contemporary (2016), Colours of Hope in partnership with the Cancer Foundation (CLWCF), Children Living with Cancer Foundation (2014), American Nigerian Cultural Collaborative Project, US Consulate and Nike Art Gallery Lagos (2013), and Beyond Boundaries, Nubuke Foundation, Accra (2013). He had his 3rd solo exhibition, Connecting the Dots, in 2018, and his works were shown at ART X Lagos (2017); 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London (2017); START Art Fair, London (2018); Material Insanity, Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), Marrakech (2019); Art Context Miami Art Fair (2019), Art and Exception, Paris (2021), as well as Investec Cape Town art fair, 2021.
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Artist Statement
The last four years have been a trying time for me. These are times I questioned the underlying threads of my existence, especially the threads that constitute my religious convictions which fundamentally are the cornerstones of other belief systems, and as such determines how I perceive event and situations; how I derive meaning.
Religion should be a phenomenon driven by cultural experience for spiritual transfiguration. The relativity of Ultimate awareness is constantly narrowed within the myopic frame of the human mind; the conclusion that spiritual reality should be experienced only through the lens of dominant religious affiliations. But I was searching for meaning beyond religion, I was reaching for a state where I can perceive and appreciate without discrimination, the individualities and differences that so abound in nature, cultures, people, places, as well as in things and events. I was tasty for an awareness through which I can un-distortedly perceive, analyze and appreciate the complexities of human experience and environment. I found the answers partly in my work, in the symphony of colours, textures, shapes and forms and, materials. I realized that art is not just a revelation and manifestation of meaning but meaning itself, that art is the unbiased lens through which life can be perceived, interpreted, analyzed and relished.
Last year, I read the book, “Maps of Meaning, the Architecture of Beliefs,” by Jordan Peterson and I came across this phrase: everything that is not our world is not a world. As I ruminate over this phrase, I realize that it captures the underlying causes of- and a near totality of- the mayhem that has become the fabric of contemporary living globally. Using colours, shapes, forms and textures and, different materials of human experience as a metaphor and adopting this phrase as a standpoint, I am exploring and examining notions around identity, prejudices and biases and, to understand how thought paradigms and processes contribute to erecting imaginary and physical boundaries across various ethnic, religious, socio-cultural, economic and political institutions that affect the lives of people in today’s society.
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About Bloom Art
Bloom Art offers intimate exhibitions of art in an accessible format that is bolstered by acclaimed ancillary programming tailored to each exhibition. These include artist talks, salons and publications. Daring to present art in alternative exhibition space and context, Bloom Art has enabled an organic interplay with other forms of creative expression as well as the vibrant multi-arts scene in Nigeria. Designed to engage with the quintessential lover of higher culture and meaningful aesthetics, Bloom Art is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of modern and contemporary art from Nigeria & Africa and cultivating and elevating its receivership. Headquartered in a storied intimate space - a Lagos salon situated within a 1970s building, Bloom Art also seeks to redefine the experience, the engagement and the education in art - both the visual and the other facets, through a series of thoughtful tailored appreciation and immersive events - exhibitions, talks, music recitals, book readings, film screenings, and strategic art dealing & advisory.
Ugoma Ebilah is the founder and chief curator at Bloom Art.