There are exhibitions that ask to be observed, and there are those that invite you into their world. Ololade Oletubo’s Mixed Reality belonged firmly to the latter.

Presented at Afrahouse Gallery in London on 1 September 2026, the solo exhibition brought together a vivid collection of paintings shaped by colour, culture and the quiet power of human relationships. Oletubo’s figures appeared in moments of conversation, motherhood, friendship and daily activity, transforming familiar scenes into compelling reflections on identity and community.

At first encounter, it was the colour that commanded attention. Orange, turquoise, purple, blue, yellow and green moved energetically across the works, often extending beyond clothing and bodies into the surrounding space. Thick, expressive marks gave the paintings a physical presence, with every stroke appearing to contribute to the mood of the scene.

But beneath that visual intensity was something quieter. The exhibition was deeply interested in people being together.

In one painting, three men face one another in conversation. Their hands, expressions and body language create the impression of an exchange unfolding beyond the canvas. There is no need to know what is being discussed. The familiarity of the interaction is enough. It speaks of friendship, dialogue and the social spaces through which relationships are maintained.

Another work brings together women carrying young children. Here, Oletubo turns an everyday image of motherhood into a wider meditation on care. The children rest against their mothers while the women engage with one another, creating a scene in which nurturing appears both personal and communal.

Elsewhere, a group of women gathers around a central figure balancing a vessel above her head. Their colourful garments sweep across the composition while smiles and gestures animate the scene. What might ordinarily be considered a routine moment becomes, through Oletubo’s treatment, a celebration of resilience, companionship and collective experience.

These scenes give Mixed Reality much of its strength. Oletubo does not search for extraordinary subjects. Instead, he asks viewers to reconsider the extraordinary qualities already present in ordinary life.

The paintings also carry a strong visual connection to African cultural identity. Headwraps, traditional caps, flowing garments and jewellery appear throughout the works, but they are not presented as decorative additions. They become part of the language through which identity, heritage and individuality are expressed.

Oletubo’s approach to the human figure is equally distinctive. His subjects are recognisable without being rigidly realistic. Faces are constructed through fragments of paint, shadows and highlights. Bodies emerge from energetic strokes before appearing to dissolve back into colour.

That quality creates an interesting relationship between certainty and ambiguity. The viewer knows what they are looking at, yet the image continually reminds them that reality has been reconstructed through the artist’s hand.
In this sense, the title Mixed Reality feels less like a description and more like an idea running through the entire exhibition.

Reality here is layered. It contains what is seen, what is remembered, what is inherited and what is felt. Personal experience exists alongside cultural memory. Individual figures exist within communities. Traditional references meet a contemporary painting language.

Showing the works in London further strengthened this dialogue. Within one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities, Oletubo’s paintings offered images that were unmistakably rooted in African experience while addressing emotions that travel easily across borders.

The exhibition did not ask its audience to choose between cultural specificity and universal humanity. It demonstrated how the two can coexist.

A mother caring for her child remains connected to a particular culture and history, but tenderness needs no translation. A conversation between men may emerge from a specific community, yet friendship and disagreement are universally understood. A gathering of women can hold particular cultural meanings while still communicating companionship to someone encountering that world for the first time.

Perhaps that is where Mixed Reality found its most compelling voice. It was not simply an exhibition about how people look. It was about how people relate, to their families, their communities, their heritage and one another.
By placing those relationships at the centre of his canvases, Oletubo created a body of work that felt celebratory without becoming superficial and culturally grounded without becoming distant.

What remained after the colour and texture was something fundamentally human: people talking, laughing, carrying, caring and continuing together.

In Mixed Reality, those seemingly ordinary acts became worthy of being remembered.