Olasunkanmi Akomolehin Nigeria, b. 1994

Olasunkanmi Akomolehin was born in 1995 in Lagos, Nigeria, where he grew up immersed in the stories, styles, and social rhythms of one of Africa's most dynamic cities. His formation as a painter was shaped by that environment as much as by any formal training, and his practice has remained rooted in the personal and the everyday ever since. Working in oil and acrylic on canvas, Akomolehin developed a figurative language that treats painting not as documentation but as a form of emotional archaeology, a way of recovering what time and distance threaten to erase.

At the center of Akomolehin's practice is a sustained inquiry into memory, identity, and human connection. His compositions are built around figures in repose, their gazes carrying a quiet intensity that resists sentimentality. Works such as "People are Becoming Memories While Still Alive (More than a Flower Series)" explore the idea that memory is not only formed after loss but is woven into the fabric of living relationships. The series "A Portrait of Ìbítọ́lá" and paintings including "A Journey to the City" (2023), "Fiesta Day" (2023), and "Our 1st Date" (2024) demonstrate his range, from intimate portraiture to scenes of communal life, all rendered with a dynamic command of pattern and compositional structure. He draws frequently on the visual culture of his father's generation, reinterpreting afros, boot-cut trousers, and the fashions of an earlier Lagos as markers of a shared history that painting can hold and transmit across time.

Akomolehin has participated in group exhibitions across Nigeria, the United States, Italy, and China, establishing an international presence early in his career. Notable exhibitions include "It's All In Me" at Affinity Art Gallery, Lagos (2022); "Visions of Home: A Journey Through Nigeria," curated by Gbenro Adeyemo for Omenai at Frame Chicago (October 2023); "Out of Africa: Seminal Works of Contemporary Africa and Its Diaspora" at Ethan Cohen Gallery at the KuBe Art Center, Beacon, New York (July to September 2024); and "Gegen den Strich: Die Generation Z in der Kunst" at Schloss Sacrow, Germany (2024).

A defining chapter in Akomolehin's international development was his residency at 68projects by KORNFELD, the internationally recognized project space and artist-in-residence program founded by KORNFELD Galerie Berlin at Fasanenstrasse 68 in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The residency placed him within a community of artists from across the world and introduced him to the Berlin art scene at a formative moment in his practice. In June 2024, Olasunkanmi Akomolehin was included in "Berlin on My Mind," the group exhibition celebrating the 10th anniversary of the 68projects by KORNFELD residency program, held from 21 June to 24 August 2024, alongside artists including Cristina BanBan, Dawit Abebe, Jennifer Packer, and Doron Langberg. KORNFELD Galerie Berlin has further presented his work at Arthouse Basel, reflecting the gallery's commitment to bringing his practice to international audiences.

Olasunkanmi Akomolehin continues to develop a body of work that is at once deeply personal and broadly resonant, committed to the idea that painting can preserve what ordinary life tends to let slip away.