–An immersive art exhibition that celebrates African heritage
On Friday, June 10, Olubukola Bolarinde, the CEO of Yellow Dot Limited, a leading creative curation/production company, Olubukola Bolarinde, will be having a solo art exhibition.
Tagged ‘106 Expressions’, the exhibition curated by the foremost culture and art custodian Nike Davies-Okundaye, will be an intimate display of Bolarinde’s artworks inspired by her experiences from childhood that traverse time and culture.
“106 Expressions is a collection of artworks celebrating our African heritage; our people, and our culture. I have drawn inspiration from my experiences as an African child. The works transport you to a place and a time, perceived through an African child’s mind. A different time from the times we now live in. As our world continues to evolve, a great number of our children have not and will never have these experiences,” explained Bolarinde.
The art exhibition will feature more than 80 artworks by the self-taught artist and architect, and a fashion display of 20 curated pieces developed in collaboration with notable fashion designers. The exhibition will be crowned by the event itself which will be taking place on Bolarinde’s natural habitat – a construction site in Eko Atlantic City.
“I am staging an exhibition and building it from scratch on a construction site. I will be fusing the best of both worlds, art and architecture. I am bringing people into the site and immersing them in an experience that erstwhile did not exist. Something that has never been done before. As a Creative, I love to think outside the box and you must dare to be different, in order to stand out. This experience is my 106th exhibit and the venue is located at Eko Atlantic City.”
“The exhibition space is a maze and once you start, you must behold all of the art pieces. At the end of the maze, you transition into a proper theatre-style, formal seating space, where the fashion pieces then hit the runway.”
Art is a form of preservation for the self-taught artist and architect, and her descriptive prowess as a storyteller is translated through her art.
Naturally drawn to art in all its forms of expression, Bolarinde has always evinced a passion at an early age. This was demonstrated through her pencil drawings.
For the art exhibition, Bolarinde deploys various media such as acrylics and oils on canvas; the use of rich textures to create pieces that give an illusion of being tactile and three-dimensional and hopes to deliver an immersive experience for viewers.
Watch Olubukola Bolarinde at work here.