By Osa Mbonu-Amadi, Arts Editor

ADEBAYO Ebenezar Seun brought something special, refreshing and innovative to the 2023 International Arts and Crafts Expo, INAC. For the first time in the history of INAC, the audience was entertained to what the artists called performance art. He came on stage with a blank canvas, oil paints, and instantly painted a portrait of Otunba Runsewe in two minutes! That feat sent electric waves of excitement across the audience.

Vanguard  cornered Seun as soon as he descended from the stage and had a brief chat with him: How did he acquire such amazing skill? “Number one is discipline and curiosity,” he said. “I am an artist, but I have passion in theatre and performing art. In fact, I took all my electives in school from theatre performing art because of the love I have for the stage.

“I searched for, and found, a way to merge my art and performance. I worked very hard in studying (human) features. You can see that the painting is not a reality painting. But if you look at it you will recognize the person on the canvas. If the major features of a person are captured, every other part will be additional. So, I trained myself to do that in the shortest possible time. It is a product of hard work.”         Adebayo Seun is from Kwara State, and a graduate of Fine Art from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Presently he is doing his National Youth Service in Taraba State.

How did he come to know Otunba Segun Runsewe? “Otunba Runsewe is a very nice man. He carries young artists along. He believes in young talents and those who are willing to take over the good job he started. Otunba Runsewe is very passionate about the youths. He is not the kind of person who erects boundaries around himself. He is a very free man; a very approachable person. When you have something to offer and you approach him, he is ever ready to embrace you, so long as you are serious and know what you are doing,” Seun told  Vanguard.       

Nobody would doubt an artist who paints a portrait in two minutes when the artist says, “I have thousands of works.” As they say in Latin,  Res ipsa loquitur: The facts speak for themselves.    “Apart from performance art,I also do formal painting. I have enough paintings to start up a gallery. I have a plan to open my own art gallery here in Abuja, if I get some funding, by God’s grace.”

Seun has done several solo and group exhibitions.

This particular portrait of Otunba Runsewe, by virtue of being a product of the first performance art (painting) in the history of International Arts & Crafts Expo, has been imbued with rarity – an attribute that causes paintings to sell for millions of dollars!