Abisoye Ojosipe is a Nigerian-born contemporary artist currently based in the UK. His artistic practice is a visual inquiry into identity, heritage, and the complexity of the human spirit, translating into expressive portraits that are both deeply personal and universally resonant. His works create visual interest, and convey complex emotions, or represent balance between opposing forces.

In Orange Blossom Gaze (2025), he interrogates innocence. Using petals, the most visually prominent part of a flower, he deploys explains innocence and how children feel in Africa. The girl contemplates the future in a society, with political chicanery of barbarity in throes.

He employs dynamic brushwork and acrylic to create highly tactile and energetic surfaces, using the material quality of the paint to reflect the subject’s internal state and resilience. However, his brushstrokes are not heavy or thick, like that of Vincent van Gogh.

He deliberately layers this expressive realism with abstract, symbolic motifs and vibrant, contrasting colour harmonies inspired by West African cultural traditions. His subjects possess a profound, contemplative gaze, inviting the viewer to engage with the layered narratives of culture, memory, and contemporary selfhood.

Like Amrita Sher-Gil, known for her vibrant and expressive works, often featuring women in traditional attire, Abisoye emphasises texture and bold colors, creating visually striking effects.

He uses acrylic to add depth and texture to his in unique ways to add emotional depth and visual interest to their work, painting vibrant and expressive pieces.

In Orange Blossom Gaze, there isn’t an actual background scene in the painting. The young girl is the focus point of this painting and the main colours are green and orange.

Using a minimalist approach, the artist leaves negative space around the figure creating a powerful focal point that draws the viewer’s attention to the subject.

The empty space can also evoke a sense of simplicity, elegance, and contemplation. It’s a great way to let the artwork breathe and shine.

Those colours together evoke a sense of calmness and serenity.

Using basically a limited colour palette, he makes bold artistic choice emphasising texture, tone, and composition.

The combination of orange and green create a striking contrast. The warmth of the orange against the coolness of the green adds visual interest and depth to the piece.

The warmth of the orange against the coolness of the green adds visual interest and depth to the piece: Serenity and balance- Growth and calmness- Nature’s tranquility.

In the context of innocence, green might evoke feelings of freshness and purity. It’s a calming colour that can convey a sense of hope and renewal.

With his choice of chastity, purity, lack of sin, impeccability, spotlessness and virtue, the artist creates captivating portraits using green to represent growth, harmony, new beginnings, renewal and balance.

In Patterned Youth (2025), he explores the quiet strength and the enduring presence of dignity. Using acrylic, the portrait captures a young girl whose gaze extends beyond the canvas. She is tender, reflective and unshaken in her belief in the future. Her natural hair frames her face like a crown, emphasising both her individuality and her rooted connection to heritage.

The artist also uses the orange background to provide a sense of radiance, while the painting is set mainly of lines and curves. But the subtle contrasts between Orange Blossom Gaze (2025) and Patterned Youth (2025), is their close compactness.

While Orange Blossom Gaze embodies the delicate balance between vulnerability and power, stillness and movement, softness and defiance, Patterned Youth demonstrates a bold, adventurous and unshaken child.

While exploring the themes of innocence in Patterned Youth, the artist emphasises the fragility of beauty, creating a sense of nostalgia, wonder or melancholy.

For him, bold colour, rich textures and expressive forms define his signature.

It is a gateway to new beginnings. The work looks at an innocent girl on a journey to joy and fulfilment. He produces impactful works that are profound encouraging his audience to sow the seed of truth and the seed of hope and love in the innocent girls.

Abisoye is proficient with his medium and there is precision and control as he demonstrates mastery of his work. Forms in Similitude; Expression in colours and innocence and many others are pieces that evoke emotions and provoke thoughts in the viewer. The works no doubt create a lasting impression on his audience

There is that freedom to explore and it unleashes the artist in him and he has a desire to fulfill his ideal life vision. In all, the paintings are adorable, bearing witness to the beauty of his strokes and brushes. Yet, their looks embody so much that they engage the audience with the riddles of giving meaning and interpretations to some of the facial expressions.

The innocent face painting gazes into the future, living viewers wondering what would have occupied their thought. For some, it represents the struggles, burden and challenges of being children.

You’ll also see immediacy and movements in his composition, especially, Sweet Distraction, and captures the essence of his subject matter rather than the details. He works spontaneously and you enjoy his bright and varied use of light.

His work is also therapeutic, offering stress relief and promoting relaxation. He reminds his audience that he is philosophical and spiritual. You should therefore not be tired of doing what is right, because you will have a sense of accomplishment.

In Courage on the Horizon, the artist deploys sky blue colour, grey and green. This often represents tranquility and peacefulness, while grey adds a touch of balance and neutrality. Green brings in a sense of nature and harmony. Together, they symbolise innocence.

Thematically, Abosoye’s works are not only deep and thought-provoking but act as mirrors, which viewers use to reflect on fragility and resilience as well as the unspoken narratives of mankind.

His technical foundation was solidified at the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria, where he developed a deep appreciation for colour theory and traditional aesthetics.