“My name is Alimi Adewale, I'm a Nigerian artist based in Lagos." This is how the visual artist first introduces himself as he speaks from his studio. But there is more to add to the story of the sculptor and painter who turned away from engineering to meet his creative ambitions.

There is not a single path to artistry or success nor is there a single frame Alimi Adewale would fit in. The Lagos-based artist has made his signature to stretch his creativity as far as goes his explorations and experiences.  Movement is at the core of the human experience so are his works. Engaging in various themes, Alimi Adewale documents contemporary history through his painting and sculpting which have garnered attention and recognition over the years. 

From engineering to contemporary Arts

We often say that one can live several lives before finding their way. A saying that applies to artist Alimi Adewale for which arts came rather as a prolongation of his work, a late call in his life he did not ignore “ My background is in engineering, the influence of arts came as a realisation later in my life. When I was a kid I really liked to work with my hands and as I started engineering, I realised that I may not  actually work with my hands.  Most of the time, engineering especially here is more about maintenance,  maintaining what has already been built. You don’t  tend to design, you just keep doing the maintenance needed.” From this realisation, the then engineer started his informal education into arts, favouring exploration over classic training. “At the beginning I started going to exhibitions, with curiosity which I found very fascinating, this is how it started. I am more a product of workshops and artists residencies I have attended so maybe that allowed me to break the rules. What happens when you go to a regular arts school  is that you need to follow certain paths and rules first. And because of those established rules, you don’t tend to explore, to experiment that much in the early stages.” 

Indeed, over the past years Lagos has emerged as one of the hotspot of the western region along with Accra or Dakar  when it comes to contemporary arts and is still blooming. Fairs like Art x Lagos gain more traction each edition, while independent collectives are rooted in the life of the city and galleries establish within and beyond boarders the more recent example being Rele Gallery opening in Los Angeles. Still they hold strong ties with the cultural capital of the country highlights Adewale. “ Nigeria has 36 different states but Lagos is like the artistic hub, where most events are happening. Arts schools are scattered across the country so what happens is that once they graduate, artists tend to come to Lagos mostly because it is also the biggest business and arts appreciation hub leading up to more opportunities for young artists. So I think as a result of individual artists practicing on their own coupled with the presence of  the galleries and others actors of the scene, all of them have contributed to create an industry that is becoming self-sustaining here in Lagos.” 

Keeping an eye on blooming Lagos and the young generation

Alimi Adewale began his journey into arts past his thirties nevertheless went through the same obstacles and blockers a young artist face.  It is not an easy transition to leave the stability of a nine-to-five yet the artist didn’t shy away. He was not exempt from comments as his ambition was met with questions while operating this transition. “ I was in the financial industry later I moved to construction industry. I think the advantage of me coming from a different background has enabled me to take a different approach, to take the practice into another dimension. Most of the time, reactions would be ‘Oh you studied engineering so why are you going to do this ?’ or ‘How are you gonna feed yourself ?’ type of questions. Looking back I see how young artist have to go through a lot, pushed into getting a day job instead of encouraging them. This is why we are setting up residencies for those young artists. And there is so much more awareness now with the Art Fairs, the auctions that are springing up. We are creating an industry just like there is the music industry, the film industry, Arts is getting there and I can see it on its way to be self-sustaining.  

The amount of opportunities is a great indicator of this. It is a very competitive industry and opportunities are very scarce. The more the industry grows the more there will be different aspects of the arts industry developing. Arts is also invading spaces in the city, you see how people are doing murals beside creating works for sale, salons are being opened to display arts as well, there is just so much more awareness now that it will benefit more people with time !” 

Beside his works, Adewale pays attention to the younger crowd of artists and places lots of support to the effervescent scene forming. “I am seeing change in the younger generation. There are so many amazing talents willing to take the alternative step. During the first lockdown, I started the Nomad Artist Project which seeks to support artist cultural trips abroad so they can develop their skills and arts but also to provide financial support, key elements to the evolution of any artists says Adewale who is also adamant about galleries relations with artists “Most of the times the galleries don’t really understand  what artists exactly want this is why with this initiative artists can highlight what does matter to them, this is part of the reasons why I started it [Nomad Artist Project] …  part of my development as an artist is the results of  residencies, visits to museums. The thing is except for  a few, we don’t have much museums where artists can go to be inspired. I believe if artists make more cultural trips, it is going to expose them to different perspectives and enable them to develop their craft. Which is why I started the Nomad Artist which is works as an artist loan initiative. With the quarantine however we started thinking more about focusing on local first to see what we can do for artists. Because I think the more you encourage younger artists the more we will enable them to reach the next step eventually in an industry that is well established .

Is there an African way to fly a plane ?

Adewale holds particularly strong stance when it comes to the different type of management of the artists within the contemporary world especially regarding galleries as he wishes supported them more in their daily work. “Besides the artist making a work and then hanging it on the walls of the gallery, I found most  galleries are not much engaged in programs and you need programs to cheer up, to balance the commercial approach. Some galleries are more artist focused, others more collectors focused…The way as you are sitting as an African artist is also interesting. It’s very interesting because you have different kind of models, especially in Europe where you have those galleries which are only focused on African artists compared to galleries where you have African artists, European artists, Chinese artists an approached based on each artist’s technique, not based on region. When they [Nil Gallery] approached me, I found their approach very interesting as you have all those European artists colliding with Asian and African artists. It is based on the skills and style. It is not a European gallery with this African-only crowd of artists trying to push in that direction only.”

Adewale has been presenting some of his work with Paris-based gallery Nil over the past years, featured next to  worldwide names like painter Maxim Dondyuk, figurative Kim Won Geun or sculptor Jesús Curiá to name a few.  “ As an artist it is not as much about where you come from, but what you do. There has been a general misconception about what African Art should look like. We must look at the granularity of arts coming from Africa not only under the prism of country but of genres and styles. I always say, is there an African way to fly a plane ? The answer is no. A pilot is a pilot. An artist is supposed to be an artist. He laughs.

If you are from Africa there is always the emphasis on the origin. When it comes to my art, it comes from Africa yet it is standard.  But I do really think those are thoughts that will evolve with time. And as for Lagos, it is a very cosmopolitan city, contemporary, my approach is that I explore very  different contemporary themes and with different styles.  I have people saying this is not African art. As an African artist you are not supposed to know how to draw for example. I have this series called Transmutation (2016) which is about trying to look through nature, and others with lots of abstractions. Which left people surprised saying ‘Oh really ?’ 

From Migrations to city explorations

Others explorations come from his direct environment and reflections. One theme the artist is keen on exploring is migrations and population moves linked to political and society structural changes. He encapsulated his views in several body of works including Migration (2016) for which he took inspiration in his own experience. “It is a results of an experience when going for a residency in Scandinavia, people assuming I was a migrant while I was rolling my bag asking me  ‘How was the journey on the boat ?’. Later on during this trip I met migrants, they exposed the reasons behind their migration. I found out  most of those migrants were not even happy in the society they immigrated in. This is an interesting theme I explored for a while. While now I am moving into a new exploration of migration, migration as a results of environmental impact. We are destroying environment all the times and I assume there will be a period where people will finally want to retreat in an environment where they don’t have these issues impacting their lives. For my work to feel authentic I have to translate my personal experiences, that’s the way authenticity comes into your work.” An authenticity that may feel risky some times.  

“ Many times I have been called a risky artist because I interact with many different styles. As for example I could be exploring a theme like migration for three years or so and then move into another as a reflection of what I am going through at the moment. Because my experience is not always the same all the time. I cannot be doing the same thing again all the time, this is my approach, so I move across different themes. As I have been living in Lagos, my work has been about how people occupy this space, I have talked about issues of overpopulation and urban congestion in a city of 20 millions. This raises the question of urban planning for example you can walk and see road leading to dead parts of the town. “ 

Arts and society intertwine in the world of Adewale who refuses to be painted as an activist but rather commentator of his environment. “ We [artists]  create conversations, we don’t have to be support or be against, more like  a  social commentator. With my work I try to document history, my immediate society, what I experience. The focus on aesthetics is key part of my work, I don’t want to be conceptual and be putting a trash bin in the middle of the gallery for example. laughs. Maybe I belong to the old school, I work with wood and paint most essentially, those are the materials I resonate the most with, they inspire me a lot. It is about how I express ideas. 

Sculpting the unheard voices

“I started carving because painting was not enough for me anymore, I started being fascinated by textures, different forms of materiality coming together, this is where I find my freedom by picking different materials depending on the idea I want to express.” 

“ …people are being told to go to vote without knowing what is the actual plan and eventually always regret having voted for the person wining the election. So this is when and why I started chunking the faces to say we don’t have freedom of speech, we are faceless and voiceless. You can’t go to the police, you won’t be heard and this is our reality.” About Anonymous series (2017) recently shown at 1-54 London 

“When I started sculpting, these were recognisable faces. Few years ago we were supposed to have elections in the country and there were lots of campaigning to tell people to go vote. Our politicians are very arrogants, it’s about voting without giving further explanations as to what they are really planning for the next years if they are elected as in other countries where you have a manifesto and documentations to get to know politicians agenda. So here people are being told to go to vote without knowing what is the actual plan and eventually always regret having voted for the person wining the election. So this is when and why I started chunking the faces to say we don’t have freedom of speech, we are faceless and voiceless. You can’t go to the police, you won’t be heard and this is our reality.”

About black masculinities and policing creative expression 

“ It takes courage to be a black man in America, or to be a black man anywhere in the world because of all this victimisation. The black male carries different emotions, there are different perspectives about them some of these faceless are masculine. Maybe because I am an artist, I am exempt from some experiences, as he remembers being welcomed with enthusiasm during his time in Italy contrary to the experiences related by others. 

During this lockdown, I reflected a lot more on my environment and nature. What I discovered is that art expression and production is very codified and artists tend to be told what to do, what topics to avoid, which ones are too controversial , sensitive, almost dictating what is appealing and what is not, then influencing the style of the artist. This doesn’t give the opportunity for full creativity development. The ability to give artists more freedom in their creativity and path to create is a challenge I see for most artists. These days, many are being dictated what should be produced. Artists then learn to play it safe, meaning avoiding dealing with certain topics, being apolitical. The consequence is artists  lose the opportunity of development of arts of any form nor grow beyond their comfort zone. He paused. It is through this very expression than artists communicate, so what is it left then ?”  

“ I remember this piece, a portrait of George Floyd I introduced saying This is George Floyd and people coming to me and telling me I have to change the title. I am documenting history, just his memorial and I am going through this policing when I am told that I am not legitimate to talk about Afro Americans, you havent experienced it. Which is frustrating, this is my interpretation, my expression of the event. I saw the suffering of this man and interpreted it my way. “ 

This, is in my opinion one of the challenges of the Nigerian scene as well as the lack of for non profits. A non for profit can support young artists through their development in skills and identity. For example there is this tendency where artists are shown based on the years of practice not on for example based on common themes and stories. Years of practice can then becomes blockers to artists that could already be showing their work on a larger scale. Which makes no sense to me. We should focus more on the quality of the work than the years of practices.”  

If you don’t tell your story who will ?

”Surprisingly my favourite are the ones people don’t like. Laughs. Basically these have been staying at my studio for times now and has gradually grown on me. My favourites tend to be the pieces that stay with me longer in the studio, you get used to have them around you.”

“If you don’t tell your story who will ? Commented Adewale about the exposure of artists in between events. There are lots of artists here, we don’t focus on us, what you are doing.” Speaking of which, we couldn’t close this conversation without mentioning the role of social media as arts and African contemporary arts especially have known a surge of interests online especially on Instagram to which Alimi Adewale is far from impressed. He is actually reluctant using them, curating his account on seldom occasions. “And this is part of the reasons I have not been very active on social media for example, I just do it once in a while. I have mixed feeling as likes and number of followers can be quite delusional but also I believe that if you are really interested into the work of an artist, it takes time actually get to know him and his work. In my case, my website is well documented with a decade long of works and exhibitions to really get to know me. Some artists share some of their work available on Instagram but this is still not enough. If you are really interested, I don’t want it to be based on the likes. You can see my work and history and what I have been doing for the past decade on my website.  

If you really are interested into an artist, it takes time to learn what they have been up to for the past years or decade compared to trying to reach let’s say the million followers landmark, this is supposed to be the role of galleries first.” 

You can find Alimi ADEWALE’s works on his website www.alimiadewale.com, nomadartist.org and Nil Gallery