Painter Oluwafemi Otoki has a laudable artistic commitment with his strokes: to document several sceneries of the natural world for posterity.
From March 19 to 28, the Yaba College of Technology alumnus will demonstrate how far he has broadened his scope in nature painting with a solo exhibition titled ‘This Land Is Not For Sale’ at Signature Beyond Art Gallery, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi.
In the show, the 54-year-old artist will be affirming how nature changed, energised and inspired him to document all he had observed on canvas.
Previously focusing on painting miniature landscape works, Otoki has gradually developed his technique to create bigger works from his extensive trips to rural communities.
Driven by passion, he started studying, sketching and painting landscapes with vivid and expansive depictions of natural scenery in the southwest, particularly Ekiti and Ondo states.
“Nature speaks to me, and I believe there is a lot to explore, discover and learn from it,” Otoki explained ahead of the exhibition. “I do this in my way, working hard to create paintings that speak to me and others about the beauty that exists in and
around us,” he noted further.
The artist, who has been described as an artist whose choice of realism stands out from the crowded space of hyperrealism, added that his inspiration comes from God.
One of Otoki’s colleagues, Ike Chiemezie Gerald, noted that the artist “has chosen not to dwindle his practice and career down the common lane of photocopying, typical of sample paintings by certain artists in Nigeria whose, art, especially landscapes, could sarcastically be described as an extension of photographic renditions without brush strokes.”
In his foreword in the exhibition’s catalogue, Gerald explained Otoki’s choice of ‘This Land Is Not For Sale’ as a theme. “The technical resolution by the artist can be interpreted metaphorically in the expression, This Land is Not for Sale, a caveat emptor, intelligently structured.”
Gerald noted that the theme “introduces the eccentricity in the artist’s dialect in terms of composition, colour and texture approach, with his lavishly elaborate strokes and vibrant colours which tend to invoke in the art seers the living memory and impression of Monet’s execution of the Lilly series, for instance.”
Otoki, according to Gerald, presents that “standard as an affirmation of peculiarity in approach and professional identity.”
Though used as a metaphor, ‘This Land is Not for Sale’ is a fundamental expression in Nigerian pop culture. It warns people to be mindful of fraudulent activities of impostors claiming to be investors, both in transactional and non-transactional associations, Gerald argued.
“The artist in his ingenuity of thoughts, therefore, has decided to play around this concept to capture the attention of his audience; getting them to look past the mediocrity of substandard presentations of landscape paintings.”
Otoki’s painting, he insisted, deviated from “ways that encourage Plato’s mimetic theory, which argues for the uselessness of art.” Gerald said that the exhibition hopes to establish a common hub of transaction between artists, art seers and collectors of outdoor paintings.
Born in 1968, Otoki attended the Yaba College of Technology. He obtained Ordinary National Diploma (OND) and Higher National Diploma (HND)Painting in 1987 and 1992.
In 2010, he painted portraits of the Military administrator of Adamawa state, Air Vice Marshall Gregory Agboneni and the Secretary-General of the National Youth Services Corps (NYSC). He also executed a commissioned work for the NYSC secretariat in Yola. Otoki was presented with the Adamawa State Government award for exemplary services by the Government and people of Adamawa State in 1994.
In 2003, he received a certificate of achievement from the Ohio State University for completing the International Art and Culture Summer Workshop.
Otoki belongs to several professional bodies, including the Society of Nigerian Artists and The Creative Chambers. He believes there is a lot to explore, discover and learn
from nature. His greatest aspiration is to be one of the foremost landscape
painters globally and project a positive image of the African artist globally.
His past exhibitions include ‘Flower Blossom’, ‘Happenings of Our Time’, ‘Family Ties’, ‘Trade Wind of Our Time’, ‘Millstones’ and ‘Strokes of Peace’ and ‘Some Names’ at Nimbus Art Centre.
