By Adefoyeke Ajao

Abisola Gbadamosi’s art is a sight for sore eyes: a light-hearted blend of fluttering butterflies, blooming flowers, nymph-like figures and vibrant colours that seem more in tune with narratives of love, hope and restoration than with their underlying themes of anguish, bereavement and outrage.

Abisola Gbadamosi

Since graduating from university in 2017, Gbadamosi has participated in several exhibitions, the most recent being Rele Art Gallery’s Young Contemporaries 2018. Prior to that, she featured in a variety of exhibitions within and outside Nigeria. Besides painting, Gbadamosi also specializes in photography, interior architecture and fashion design.

The 22-year-old’s works, painted primarily with watercolour, evoke tranquillity and draw the viewer into an overwhelmingly magical dimension. Her artworks are deeply nuanced with a curious mix of personal emotions, memories and spirituality. There is something about her paintings that makes you want them to come to life with graceful, rhythmic movements reminiscent of Hugh Harman and MGM’s 1939 animation classic, THE BLUE DANUBE.

Saved

Ganiat

Fiona (Love)

While her paintings are peppered with references to her personal experiences and the thoughts of hope and optimism that emerged from them, Gbadamosi also speaks to social issues, for example in “Freedom”, she symbolises outrage at the killings of black men in the United States (which precipitated the Black Lives Matter movement) with a colourful rose (representing “differences and togetherness and ability to create beauty out of thorns”) against a green background (a metaphor for freedom) and splashes of red (symbolising bloodshed).

Freedom

Gbadamosi’s art situates her characters in a universe where they are less burdened with the
melancholia of their backstories. She creates an idyllic space where it is possible for pain to
dissipate beneath a veneer of beauty and vivacity.

To know more about Abisola Gbadamosi’s work, visit her Art635 page or her Instagram
profile @akg.akg.