Adébayo Bolaji

"Because of Love consists of two elements: a large dark wood square frame and a smaller rectangular painting on cotton duck canvas... In the center of the painting is a solid orange rectangle framing an abstract portrait of head drawn with a confident white line. It is reminiscent of a postage stamp. The squared head is facing to the right, has pouty lips, a button nose, deep set eyes, seven short spikey strands of hair, and a lump at the nape of their wide neck… There are two rows of short painted strokes of yellow, pink, green, blue, and orange that border the rectangle, creating the illusion of running stitches or embroidery from afar. Every line has its own character; no two lines are the same. There are also rows of small yellow and pink buttons decorating the rest of the canvas. The painting is suspended in the center of the square frame and held in place by neat, taut lines of multicolored thread, which keeps it lying flat. The lines of thread are looped through gold and silver eyelets, punched through the perimeter of the canvas and wound around the wooden frame, creating thick bands of color along the wood. Love is an abstract idea that is often seen as something that is beautiful and tied to notions of beauty... Bolaji has said, 'sustaining these qualities sometimes becomes a cult-like status, but what are the driving forces that lead us to believe in a myth of universal beauty, despite its evolving nature?'" 

— Gallery guide for In Praise of Beauty, a solo exhibition for Bolaji at Arnolfini in Bristol, UK

"His painting has gained a massive following, especially among younger audiences on Instagram. It might be the honest juvenility of his approach that attracts those looking to break away from traditional techniques. He describes his process as a kind of liberating 'play' where, 'you have to come into a room and say I know nothing.' He continues, 'I know it sounds pretentious but it’s more enjoyable when you can let go.' Bolaji’s strong emphasis on following and trusting the line is certainly ludic. Doodle-like scribbles and marks of colour metamorphose throughout the process. Sometimes lines fill the canvas to form homogenising, claustrophobic abysses. In other more open paintings line and colour emerges subtly from lower layers that have been painted over in more definite blocks. Both Freud and Winnicott cite play as a means of healing: it allows for the expression and reconciliation of unconscious emotions and anxieties. It is an apt metaphor for Bolaji’s paintings, for play transgresses the barrier between the individual’s inner world and the world outside."

— Lucy Walmsley, Tank Magazine

"Painting seemingly provides Adébayo with all the things he is instinctively attracted to: a sense of control, immediate expressiveness and colour. 'For years I could walk past something that had a great use of colour and I would feel helpless inside, really pulled by it, wanting to be part of the conversation and not knowing how,' says the artist. 'But when I came to paint it was like several light bulbs were going off and going crazy, like bingo bingo bingo.'"

— Jynann Ong, It's Nice That, quoting Adébayo Bolaji

“For me, color isn’t just a visual choice — it’s a resonant field. By resonant field, I mean the invisible atmosphere that color creates — the way colors vibrate, interact, and amplify one another across a surface, shaping not just how we see, but how we feel. It’s the emotional and energetic space a color palette opens up, where each hue doesn’t just sit alone but affects — and is affected by — the others, creating a living, felt presence on the canvas. I work instinctively, listening for what a painting is asking for — where it wants to pull or vibrate. Because it’s visceral for me — it always has been… very intense, actually. Color becomes a way of creating space, of opening up areas within the canvas that hold emotional or spiritual weight. I’m drawn to deep contrasts — color as tension, as softness, as pause. I’m aware that people sometimes sense echoes of North African sensibilities because of the symbols I use, and Yoruba sensibilities or broader African visual rhythms in my work — but I don’t approach it consciously. It’s more like these patterns and sensibilities live in the residue of who I am. At least I think so, for now… memory, geography, ancestry — something like that. Growing up in a large Nigerian household in West London, Nigeria isn’t something I need to force into the work — it’s already there. It lives in my palette, my rhythms, even my silences. But it’s not static; it’s evolved, just as I’ve evolved. And I’m grateful for that. The Nigeria in my art is not a nostalgic flag or fixed identity — it’s a living pulse — and I’m not sure one can teach that, per se. Ultimately, my palette is shaped by continued lived experiences."

— Adébayo Bolaji

“I love you in sign language. Here I used the same sign, expressed differently in each piece acting like a motif…my mother could communicate (in part) through sign, and taught me a few expressions when I was younger…"

 — Adébayo Bolaji

"The mixed-media series I Love You relies on the colours and textures of not only its own composition but also its accompanying sister pieces, playing into Bolaji’s ideas about the subjective and objective, and how our perceptions of beauty are often shaped by our environments."

— Fey Donoghue, Metal Magazine