DAVID OLATOYE

8 AUGUST 2023 – 5 JANUARY 2024

‘LOVE AND LIFE’

Solo Exhibition by David Olatoye

We have witnessed with delight how David Olatoye’s dive into domesticity has evolved over time since we first began our collaboration with him. His complex and beautifully coloured acrylic and pen pieces of life at home are tinged with a digital-esque and hyper-stylised quality – it is a 21st-century view that collectors find equally compelling. Olatoye’s renditions of idealised, domestic scenes straddle both past and present, eyeballing the formalities still so prevalent in Nigerian society while leaning into what it is to be a modern millennial in his country.

There is an element of court portraiture in Olatoye’s work and invariably his focal points are female – a reference to the status of strong women in his life.

But this body of work for his solo exhibition with the gallery is much more intimate, and with good reason. Olatoye’s recent journey into fatherhood and the process of creating a family of his own has made a deep impression on his view of the world and we see how his images of domesticity are tinged with deep love and awe. Great thinkers agree we are all inevitably tempered and defined by how we deal with the challenges we are faced with and that through hardship comes a profound appreciation for what is good.

With this wonderful solo, we see how Olatoye’s own journey of evolving into more consciousness is rendered with such care, detail and palpable affection. As an observer, we are acutely aware of what a privilege it is to have a glimpse into this world.

Visit the Gallery or explore online.

• In-person viewing at the Gallery: 8 August 2023 – 4 September 2023.

• Online viewing: 8 August 2023 – 5 January 2024.