OLUWASANMI ADESIYAN | Childhood Nostalgia

OLUWASANMI ADESIYAN
Childhood Nostalgia

“My drawings are an exploration of numerous and delicate lines drawn in no regular pattern until they form objects. This style of art is known as scribble.
My works emanate the joy, peace, and struggle of growing up in Nigeria, with the hope that my viewers can have a nostalgia for what growing up was like and appreciate where they are now.”

Oluwasanmi Adesiyan is a self-taught figurative artist from Ekiti State, Nigeria. He graduated from the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria, where he studied Food Science and Technology. He lives in Lagos, Nigeria, where he makes his drawings.
Adesiyan’s journey into art was borne from his love for drawing and an influence from his uncle, who is also a renowned artist. “He took an interest in drawing portraits just for fun but soon began to get commendations and interest from people around,” Adesiyan says.

Despite having no formal training, Adesiyan keeps working to become an interesting contemporary artist. He employs ink on paper as a medium to express fond memories of children while growing up and has learned to work with other materials such as watercolor, wax crayon, acrylic, and other media. Emoting through the ranging thickness of his scribbling, Sanmi finds harmony in crooked lines.
His art has caught the attention of collectors, and some of his works are sold to private art collectors in and out of Nigeria.

“My drawings are an exploration of numerous and delicate lines drawn in no regular pattern until they form objects. I love to create art in the style of scribble, which emanates the joy, peace, and struggles of growing up in Nigeria.”

My drawings are an exploration of numerous and delicate lines drawn in no regular pattern until they form objects. This style of art is known as scribble. My works emanate the joy, peace, and struggle of growing up in Nigeria, with the hope that my viewers can have a nostalgia for what growing up was like and appreciate where they are now.
I employ ball pen mostly and a few other mediums, such as crayons, and acrylic on paper, to express myself. Some of my influences are Tolu Aliki and Austin Uzor. Portraiture is the real crux of my art; it captures the emotion of a single instance in life because they all hold some sort of dramatized emotion (a real emotion, almost unbearable to feel) that resonates with the viewer.
Each drawing serves as a mirror through which my viewers can see themselves and find comfort. I didn’t grow up in the most fancy places in the country, but the little we had was enough to put smiles on our faces. This way of growing up has dramatically influenced my works as I often paint fond memories of these periods.”

See the full article in Art Market Magazine Issue #84