Abe Odedina

Abe Odedina, born in Ibadan in 1960, is an artist of Nigerian origin, now based between London and Salvador de Bahia. Initially trained and active as an architect, he discovered painting in 2007 during a trip to Brazil, an experience that radically transformed his artistic trajectory. His practice, which he describes as "folk art", frees itself from conventional classifications to create a vibrant pictorial language rooted in Yoruba mythologies, African oral narratives and contemporary imagery. Odedina works mainly in acrylic on wood, preferring plywood to canvas, to give his works a material dimension akin to murals or painted signs. His figures - half-human, half-symbolic - evolve in colorful, minimalist compositions, often accompanied by poetic texts or inscriptions. They embody universal archetypes: heroes, gods, workers, lovers - everyday figures transfigured by spirituality and myth. Winner of the Ellsworth Kelly Award in 2017 (in collaboration with The Underground Museum, Los Angeles), Abe Odedina has exhibited widely in London, New York, Lagos, Los Angeles and São Paulo. His work is included in major private and public collections around the world. Her art, deeply narrative and humanistic, proposes a conversation between past and present, between Africa and diaspora, where color, symbolism and words become vectors of memory and resistance.