Biographie

BOLUWATIFE OYEDIRAN EST NÉ EN 1997 AU NIGERIA. IL VIT ET TRAVAILLE ACTUELLEMENT À RHODE ISLAND, AUX ÉTATS-UNIS.

 

Boluwatife Oyediran a récemment obtenu un master en beaux-arts (Master of Fine Arts - MFA) de la Rhode Island School of Design. Il vit et travaille actuellement entre le Nigeria et les États-Unis.

 

Peintre contemporain figuratif, sa pratique reflète son engagement profond à explorer l’identité noire qu’il réimagine et réoriente dans les canons de l'histoire, de la religion et de l'art occidental. 

 

Les premières œuvres de Boluwatife Oyediran utilisaient le coton comme symbole central de sa réflexion. Elles incitaient à réfléchir aux oppressions systémiques historiques, notamment en questionnant les liens entre l'histoire de la mode, l'histoire du coton et la manière dont ces histoires sont liées aux Noirs. 

 

Ses nouvelles pistes de réflexion – qui s’inscrivent dans la continuité de ses oeuvres précédentes – l’ont mené à développer le concept de “Inverted Blackness”. Dans ces portraits peints en négatif,  la peau de ses modèles – des personnes ayant quitté le continent africain pour s’installer aux États-Unis – apparaît ainsi bleue, entourée d’un halo lumineux. Ces images matérialisent une identité en mutation et capturent les changements que subit le corps lorsqu’il se trouve confronté à un environnement. Cette nouvelle série fera l’objet d’une seconde exposition personnelle à la galerie AFIKARIS à l’automne 2024 sous le titre Inverted Blackness et sera accompagnée d'une publication

 

Boluwatife Oyediran a exposé au Nigeria, en Suisse, en France, au Ghana, aux États-Unis et en Autriche. Il a eu notamment deux expositions personnelles en galerie : Point of Correction à la galerie AFIKARIS à Paris en janvier 2022 et For Boiz Like Me Who’ve Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf à la galerie 1957 à Accra à l’été 2022. Son travail a également été présenté au Musée des Beaux-Arts de Krems en Autriche dans le cadre de l’exposition The New African Portraiture. Shariat Collections dont le commissariat a été assuré par Ekow Eshun.

Œuvres
  • Boluwatife Oyediran, David and Avery (Party Size), 2025
    David and Avery (Party Size), 2025
  • Boluwatife Oyediran. Painter. Contemporary African art. Contemporary figurative painting. Black identity. Black figures portraits. Nigerian artist. Inverted Blackness.Contemporary African art. Art Contemporain Africain
    Hell or High Water, 2023
  • Boluwatife Oyediran, Simone & Lloyd (The Favorite One), 2025
    Simone & Lloyd (The Favorite One), 2025
  • Boluwatife Oyediran. Painter. Contemporary African art. Contemporary figurative painting. Black identity. Black figures portraits. Nigerian artist. Inverted Blackness.Contemporary African art. Art Contemporain Africain
    Simone’s Yellow Scarf, 2025
  • Boluwatife Oyediran. Painter. Contemporary African art. Contemporary figurative painting. Black identity. Black figures portraits. Nigerian artist. Negative process. Oil and Acrylic on canvas.
    The Transfiguration, 2023-24
  • Boluwatife Oyediran. Painter. Contemporary African art. Contemporary figurative painting. Black identity. Black figures portraits. Nigerian artist. Inverted Blackness.
    Dami, 2024
  • Boluwatife Oyediran. Painter. Contemporary African art. Contemporary figurative painting. Black identity. Black figures portraits. Nigerian artist. Inverted Blackness. Contemporary African art. Art Contemporain Africain
    Hold Me Here and There, 2025
  • Boluwatife Oyediran. Painter. Contemporary African art. Contemporary figurative painting. Black identity. Black figures portraits. Nigerian artist. Negative process.
    Joanna, 2024
  • Boluwatife Oyediran, Untitled (American Architecture I) - 2024
    Plants of America, 2023-24
  • Boluwatife Oyediran. Painter. Contemporary African art. Contemporary figurative painting. Black identity. Black figures portraits. Nigerian artist. Inverted Blackness.
    Dami and Obasi I, 2024
  • Boluwatife Oyediran. Painter. Contemporary African art. Contemporary figurative painting. Black identity. Black figures portraits. Nigerian artist. Negative process.
    My basement window (American Architecture I), 2024
  • Boluwatife Oyediran. Painter. Contemporary African art. Contemporary figurative painting. Black identity. Black figures portraits. Nigerian artist. American culture. Higher Goals (After Hammons). Negative process.
    Higher Goals (After Hammons), 2024
  • Boluwatife Oyediran, David on a couch II, 2024
    David on a couch II, 2024
  • Boluwatife Oyediran. Painter. Contemporary African art. Contemporary figurative painting. Nigerian artist. Negative process. Oil and Acrylic on canvas. Abstract Landscape.
    Untitled (Landscape I), 2024
  • Boluwatife Oyediran. Painter. Contemporary African art. Contemporary figurative painting. Black identity. Black figures portraits. Ghanaian artist. Inverted Blackness.
    David on a Couch, 2023-24
  • Boluwatife Oyediran, One of Y'all Folks Gon Betray Me, 2021
    One of Y'all Folks Gon Betray Me, 2021
  • Boluwatife Oyediran, And their Fingertips Were White with Grief, 2021
    And their Fingertips Were White with Grief, 2021
  • Boluwatife Oyediran, The African Pope, 2021
    The African Pope, 2021
  • Boluwatife Oyediran. Painter. Contemporary African art. Contemporary figurative painting. Black identity. Black figures portraits. Nigerian artist. Inverted Blackness. Historical painting revisited.
    Untitled (portrait of Queen Elizabeth II), 2021
  • Boluwatife Oyediran, Self Portrait As Napoleon, 2021
    Self Portrait As Napoleon, 2021
  • Boluwatife Oyediran, Lady with a Boll, 2021
    Lady with a Boll, 2021
  • Boluwatife Oyediran. Painter. Contemporary African art. Contemporary figurative painting. Black identity. Black figures portraits. Nigerian artist. Inverted Blackness. Historical Painting Revisited.
    Kemi, 2021
  • Boluwatife Oyediran, To Become a Man, 2021
    To Become a Man, 2021
  • Boluwatife Oyediran, Dreamscape, 2021
    Dreamscape, 2021
  • Boluwatife Oyediran, Moremi, 2021
    Moremi, 2021
Expositions
Foires
Presse
Catalogues
Interview

On the occasion of his solo show Inverted Blackness, on view at our gallery until 23 November 2024, artist Boluwatife Oyediran shared with us the story behind his project and his creative vision in a a special interview.


HOW DID YOUR ARTISTIC JOURNEY BEGIN, AND WHEN DID YOU REALIZE YOU WANTED TO BECOME AN ARTIST?

 

I think I’ve been an artist for most of my life, since when I was a child. Everybody has that story of them making stick drawings while they were very young, before they got better at drawing, and then moved on to something else. But, professionally, I became an artist during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was then I could say that I discovered what it is that artists do. And since then, I’ve been on a journey to finding my style and voice as a visual artist. 

 

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR ARTISTIC STYLE AND HOW HAS YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS EVOLVED?

 

Currently, I make figurative paintings, mostly. But I write short stories on the side; I dabble in fiction. During my MFA program at RISD [Rhode Island School of Design] I tried to incorporate some of my short fictions into my paintings, which led to works like The Transfiguration (2023-24) which is part of my latest exhibition Inverted Blackness.

 

My creative process has evolved over these last few years partly because I’m still discovering myself as an artist. I think I have the potential to do more than I’m doing, and the more I discover myself, the more I evolve. For instance, in my next series I have plans to make some landscape paintings, in connection to my experience as an African immigrant living in America. So, I’ve been studying a lot of Monet and Van Gogh. I don’t believe there’s one medium to say something, so at times I’m looking for another medium to say what I’m saying in my paintings or writings. As Lynette Yiadom-Boakye famously said: “I write the things I cannot paint and paint the things I cannot write.”


READ THE FULL INTERVIEW