Ayanfe Olarinde
Lives & Works in Lagos, Nigeria.
Ayanfe Olarinde is a self-trained visual artist currently employing scribbling techniques as well as photography in creating intricately detailed and multi-layered images. In 2018, she graduated from the University of Lagos with a BSc in Microbiology. She is currently a mentee at The Nlele institute Lagos.
Olarinde explores and drives conversation around self image, identity formation, social reality, collective history and mental health while probing popular culture and the inefficiencies of the government in contemporary society. Working across various media including ink, acrylics, wire and found objects she creates richly textured drawings, paintings, collages and sculptures.
Olarinde exhibited at the 25th Bamako Encounters, Mali – OFF exhibition (2019), Live-In Desires exhibition by the Goethe Institute Nigeria & The Nlele Institute. Group exhibitions include Dis Lagos Life, SMO Contemporary Arts, Lagos (2020), un-TOLD, Retro Africa (2020); Sculpting the City, Rele Gallery (2020) and Through Her Eyes, Moeshen Art Gallery (2019). In 2019, Ayanfe Olarinde was nominated for the Future Awards Africa Prize for Arts, and went on to win the First Bank Magic 125 Creative Contest in the same year. She was also the only Nigerian to emerge as a winner at the AWIEF Prize for Creativity Award, South Africa, 2020.
Ayanfe Olarinde will be presented by Retro Africa.
Ayanfe Olarinde, I’m the one I’ve been waiting for , 2022, Ink, acrylic and oil on canvas, 91 x 122 cm. Courtesy of Retro Africa.
