Arts, Culture and Sport
Nigeria: Babajide Olatunji’s Photorealistic Art
Babajide Olatunji (27) is a Nigerian visual artist and autodidact who works from Ile Ife and born in Okitipupa. At a glance you would think his art is in fact photography. Olatunji spent many years of self-directed study researching art historical movements and modes of production. Speaking to This Is Africa, Olatunji said his art has always been a part of his life. His earliest influence was watching his elder brother create cartoon characters and smileys. Visualization and creating sketches were to him, the best ways he could understand the world around him.
Babajide Olatunji (27) is a Nigerian visual artist and autodidact who works from Ile Ife and born in Okitipupa. At a glance you would think his art is in fact photography. He spent many years of self-directed study researching art historical movements and modes of production. Speaking to TIA, Olatunji said his art has always been a part of his life. His earliest influence was watching his elder brother create cartoon characters and smileys. Visualization and creating sketches were to him, the best ways he could understand the world around him.
It is therefore no surprise that he became a professional artist. The drawings which awed us are inspired by a constant desire to document details of his original culture and environment. Olatunji says he wishes to distil the world around him to understand the how and why of humanity’s existence. His works have been exhibited in Nigeria, the UK, and the US, and acquired by the Mott-Warsh Collection in Michigan. Olatunji will be also exhibiting at the Royal Academy of Arts summer exhibition, London, UK 9th to the 12th of June and in Scope Basel, Switzerland, from the 13th to the 18th of June, 2017
All images supplied by the artist.