Iwalewa Gallery

The Red-haired Man

The Red-haired Man 2023

Olasunkanmi Oyelusi

Oil on canvas.

12 X 16 Inches (30.5 × 40.6 cm)

This vivid portrait captures a male figure with fiery red hair. The piece explores identity and imagination through a striking use of color and texture, conveying a sense of introspective power and silent resilience.

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About the work
  • Dimension: 12 X 16 Inches(30.5 × 40.6 cm)
  • Material: Painting
  • Category: Oil paintings
  • Signature: Hand signed by artist.
  • Frame: Optional.
Olasunkanmi Oyelusi, 1951, Nigeria.

Olasunkanmi Oyelusi is a Nigerian contemporary painter whose expressive mixed media works challenge boundaries between figuration, symbolism, and abstraction. A graduate of the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State (HND, Painting, 2013), Oyelusi has established a practice rooted in both traditional and experimental techniques. His visual language spans from thick impasto and palette knife textures to bold graphic gestures and symbolic...

Olasunkanmi Oyelusi is a Nigerian contemporary painter whose expressive mixed media works challenge boundaries between figuration, symbolism, and abstraction. A graduate of the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State (HND, Painting, 2013), Oyelusi has established a practice rooted in both traditional and experimental techniques.
His visual language spans from thick impasto and palette knife textures to bold graphic gestures and symbolic forms. In recent works, such as "The Gardner's wife", Oyelusi explores the psychological terrain of identity, mental fragmentation, and cultural tension. The figure, rendered in vivid neon strokes and fractured lines, merges urban angst with poetic imagery, sunflowers blooming defiantly from the body against a saturated magenta backdrop. Texts like "Peace of Mind" and "Adversary Babe" embedded in the piece further deepen its narrative tension.
Oyelusi's practice continues to evolve across series, incorporating anthropomorphic creatures, abstracted human forms, and raw emotionality. Despite the shifts in medium or tone, his work consistently engages with African identity, psychological resilience, and the beauty found in distortion.
He has participated in multiple exhibitions in Nigeria and abroad. His work speaks to a generation negotiating the past, resisting the present, and dreaming a reconstructed future.