Being an artist of natural, self-taught skills, Orioye has quite a number of paintings to express his interest in the ongoing fresh black renaissance. With Orioye’s brush strokes in the paintings entitled “Seek Within” series and “Black Strive with Pride”, for example, artistic projection into the future in fashion and lifestyle comes alive. In these two paintings, he brings the celebrated lifestyle of the past onto canvas to stimulate the resilience of black people.
“This body of work goes through every aspect of life,” Orioye says. “We must seek tone-mindfulness in order to understand what we’re able of and how we can achieve it.” The artist, whose works have been exhibited in the international space in the last few years, argues that “The change we seek, the love we ask, and the way we anticipate the world to be, must start with us laboriously working for it.” His Artist Statement is quite instructive and metaphorical: “The thing you ask starts with you. The question is, are you set or are you going to flee?”
And stressing the beauty and Africanness of his art further is another painting titled ‘Black Consciousness’, in which he celebrates African colors. In the painting, Orioye depicts a young lady in a sensuous mood. More interesting is the fact that “Black Consciousness” is not the usual celebration of nudity adorning canvases, yet still sensuously appealing.
Commenting on Orioye’s art, a senior artist and writer, Charles Okereke, noted that Orioye's mind’s quest had progressed to infused questionings and suppositions in his canvases beyond mere rhetorical esthetics (as the trendy atmosphere now seems mostly to suggest). Okereke argued that Orioye’s work speaks in metaphors that flow between the past, the present, and the postulation of the future. Orioye, according to Okereke probes on relicts to unearth anchored reasoning that shares semblances with contemporary happenings.
“His stylistic sense is inventive of punkish style piles of hair reminiscent of the 80s and discotheques, parted with sharp oblique angles which are reflections of the hard chiseled surfaces of the Yoruba effigies he introduces into his works, seasoned with a strong sense of fashion,” Okereke explained. “Orioye is concerned with African spirituality and how they interface with identity, memories, worship, and total well-being of the people. This adaptation of the past to interface with the present and postulate a futuristic nuance is evident in his warm leathered clad supersonic subjects whose demeanor echoes the Star Trek, UFO, and intergalactic adour of postmodern Hollywood cinematic periods.”
Indeed, Orioye’s works exude metaphor in creative skills. The artist said, for example, that someone’s ability to survive the test of life when faced with situations, such as “between the world that speaks the verity in falsehoods and our inner tone that embodies the real verity in chaos,” depended on individuals' inner resilience.
Orioye’s career has taken off on a steady pace, with the unflooding energies of young African artists. He has exhibited his works in such shows as “Portraits” at Ore Ofe Art Gallery, U.K, and “Florescence” at Mitochondria Gallery, Houston. TX, U.S.
Orioye, born in 1993, and raised in the city of Osogbo, Osun State, is a native of Ido-Osi Ekiti State, Southwest, Nigeria.
In setting out to pursue a career in Fine Art, Orioye ran into quite a challenge, which almost ruined his passion as a self-taught artist. But his dream of being an artist did not happen until after his first degree in Chemistry.
He had planned to pursue a Master’s degree in Chemistry at the University of Ibadan, in 2019 where his passion for art found a way through.
He started with a mentorship under the tutelage of an established professional, Mr. Tope Fatunmbi at Topfat Art Gallery, Adamasingba, Ibadan, Oyo State. After being mentored by Fatunmbi, Orioye started his professional practice in 2020.
In search of a distinct signature, Orioye’s brushstrokes found interest in societal issues and the struggle that life demands. With such themes which he draws inspiration from, Orioye expanded his themes to capture the beauty and culture of people of color with a primary focus on women.
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