Damilola Onosowobo, (1993)

Damilola Onosowobo Marcus was born in Lagos Nigeria and has lived there all her life. Her work is inspired by reality and lived experience, but in the way reality inspires the work of an old analog camera.

It’s a subtle subversion of the colors, subject and light that somehow manages to respect them and not completely undermine them. Her work is about translating that subversion into painting. She looks to capture an obvious candidness in her subjects, while still allowing a lot of room for translation and interpretation. Despite being a very political person, she prefers not to define her work by her politics or any politics for that matter, rather she prefers to see her art as an escape, as a way to simply observe, to be present, to remember the blurry memories you can’t even make sense of, and to dream pointless dreams. ... Damilola is inspired by great artists such as Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Anders Zorn, she doesn’t view realism as an opportunity to imitate reality; hence she is unafraid of careless brush strokes or any potential raw unfinishedness to her work.
Her paintings are a deliberate rebellion from the structures and calculations from her background in design and see her oeuvre as ultimately a way to relax, observe and be present in the present.
She’s exhibited at group exhibition such as ‘Girls that run the world’ Eclectica Contemporary Capetown (2022), ‘Coalesce’ Affinity Art Gallery, Lagos (2021), She was also part of the Mother of Mankind group exhibition (2021) at HOFA Gallery, London.