OLANIYI DANIEL BABATUNDE
AUGUST 2019


NARRATIVE BIO

A native of Oyo state, Nigeria, Olaniyi Daniel Babatunde had his primary and post-primary education in Lagos and Ogun state respectively. He is a graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-ife. He got his primary art training through personal development and worked with Taiwo Adelowo, Adeniyi Dagunduro and other artists between 2011 and 2016 while he was an undergraduate.

In 2016, he set up a private studio, May Studios, where he has since been working as a full time studio artist. Over time, he has explored to advantage the use of mixed media and he has exhibited in various cities in Nigeria. His works can be found in private collections around the world.


ARTIST STATEMENT
The path I tread in the world of art is a beautiful one. Being a person with deep intuition, I draw inspiration from everything around me. I see, feel, hear, touch, and taste things but store the art that emerges from all those acts somewhere in my head until I get to work. When I get to the safety of my studio, with soft Afro-pop music playing in the background, I pour it all out. In shades, tones, tiny dots, wide strokes, lines, circles, and squares.

I love art. Fiercely. Insanely. I love it so much that it has redefined me and christened me a second time. For the world, I am Daniel Olaniyi. For the world of art, I am Daniel tee Olaniyi.

As a sojourner in the world of art, I use various materials in pursuit of the perfect one for portraying my intentions. Stones, sawdust, pebbles, seeds, rags, plastics, cowries, beads, jute bags, and many others. Sometimes, I work with fiberglass and color pigments and some others. I find comfort in using acrylic and oil, both coming on board whenever the project at hand calls for them.

I work on many mediums with the liberalism that makes me explore them all, only stopping when I find the best fit. Not just mediums, I give my works the best versions of all their needs. The best of materials. The best of passionate energy. The best of attention to details, and the best of all the skills I have harnessed over the years.

I make each piece with my hands, joyfully breathing life into it with every touch. I give each piece life benevolently so that everyone who comes in contact with my works can have a feel of me. Pagans, atheists, religious fanatics, male, female, hermaphrodite, young and old. My works speak softly to the individual who knows nothing about visual art and compels those who are familiar with art to come even closer.

For me, art is not just about capturing images or recreating something, Art is freedom. I see art as a tool for emancipating people from a warped perception of life. It is a key that opens the padlock preventing people from seeing the world in all its beauty. I use art to bring life to the dead, illuminate the dark, and bring clarity to the confused.

Apart from the freedom my works give, I use my works to create a pathway into the rarely visited ephemeral world. From my works, you go from the physical to the spiritual and from the simple to the large depths of life.

Sometimes, they drop all depths and solely focus on the day to day headlines. They talk about the environment, global warming, races, cultures, identities, human equality, and feminism. Of all the above, I give the environment some bias because, without the freshness of the air I breathe, I am nothing.

Art is my outlet for giving back some of the life I have received. Art is my ride into the ephemeral world. Art is my voice of campaign for freedom. And Art is how I document life. Every time I work on a piece of art, be it landscape, portraiture, lifestyle imagery, or just the perfect light, I am capturing a moment in time and writing a story that would be told years to come.

When I am not busy with brushes and canvases, you will find me buried in the pages of a good book, or roaming my city or neighboring ones in search of a new culture to explore.

Like every sojourner on earth, I have been to many locations but I have a thousand more on my bucket list. And for my life and art's sake, I will keep touring and recording every exploration of my canvases.

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Great works man, more oil your canvas. I always love abstracts when I see them.

TheStarsAlign:
Great works man, more oil your canvas. I always love abstracts when I see them.

Thank you

Great work where is your studio which stuff like this can hit front page

[quote author=MayStudios post=82703451]More photos[/quote
Your works are very neat and cool. It's really great man

Badb0y4lyf:
Great work where is your studio which stuff like this can hit front page

Studio is at Abeokuta, Ogun state

Daniel tee Olaniyi and Bruce Onobrakpeya