By Prisca Sam-Duru

When Dr. Wale Ajayi and Abiodun Ladipo converge to showcase their works, art lovers will be served with art beyond the well-known common features between the artists.
The two artists whose individual career dates back to over three decades are showing in the exhibition titled Boundless Space, which opens on April 28, ending May 7, 2023 at Posh Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. Curated by Bimpe Owoyemi, Boundless Space, according to the curator, is the combination of two similar techniques depicting or reincarnating the divine attributes of humans and their everyday challenges and struggles. The artists, Owoyemi stated, pay attention and create works that describe human activities, struggles, and life in general.
“Boundless Space shows the recent and old works of Dr. Wale Ajayi and Abiodun Ladipo, an exquisite collection of strong and colorful works that stirs admiration,” Owoyemi explained. “The exhibition gives the essence of hope and encouragement amongst the societal unrest faced in recent times,” a curatorial note from Owoyemi said.
Ajayi’s liquidize technique in painting is unique, objectifying images in a liquidized state of his medium. The deep essence of his works can be recognized analytically as the viewer walks into the room. His works revolve around the everyday life of humans, their struggles, challenges, and hopes.
Ajayi’s visual culture philosophy: “In the visual world, there is much more to be desired in the realm of the unseen. What is revealed to an individual is what he consciously craves to see. In other words, all of a man’s experience is insignificant to what he is divinely capacitated to do. By experience, he has discovered that the subconscious remains a pool of unlimited possibilities waiting to be explored. And so, the search continues.
Ladipo’s concept is based on his perception to create aesthetic artworks, which stimulate memories towards projecting people’s minds to a higher level of awareness and transformation. His works contain visual elements of color, space, and forms employed to create a visual dialog in splendor.
Artist and scholar, Dr Kunle Filani highlighted quite some similarities that have been with the artists from their training years at Ahmadu Bello university, ABU, Zaria. Filani however noted that, each artist has some things in creativity outside their common features. “Beyond the University training affinity, which influenced their stylistic tendencies, the content of their works also seems to be informed by their Christian faith,” Filani, a Professor of Visual arts and Aesthetics wrote in the exhibition catalogue. “There is a convenient meeting point between the style that dematerializes forms and gives credence to colour and spatial exploration, and the religious injunction that discourages the making of graven images.”
Filani noted that in their rendition, Ajayi and Ladipo seem to apply caution in the depiction of figural forms in their paintings, given the restrictions by their Christian faith. He cited some of Ajayi’s works in such paintings, for examples, as including “Soul Mate 2”, “In Search Of Greener Pastures”, and “Strangers In Our City.
On Ladipo, Filani wrote: “Ladipo’s paintings are evocative in a solemn spiritual manner. He applies colourful paints on the canvas with professional confidence. Some of his paintings include “Movement Series 3”, “One For Me & One For You” and “Ornaments 3 & 4″. He produces mixed media by attaching recycled items such as metal and plastic materials on painted canvases.”
Filani described Boundless Space as “a testimony; not only of faith but of dedication to professionalism by two remarkable artists, friends, and spiritually-minded individuals who are bent to make positive marks on the sand of time.”
Dr. Wale Ajayi is a prolific painter, master, a lecturer at the Federal University of Education, Ondo. He attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and graduated in 1990 with B. A (Hons) Fine Arts. He also had a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Painting in 1998, and later a PhD., in Painting in 2015.
Abiodun Ladipo was born in Lagos, He obtained an NCE in Fine Art Education in 1987 from Lagos State College of Education. After this he went further and bagged a BA (Hons) from Ahmadu Bello University in 1993, specializing in painting.