Adebayo Bolaji is a London-based painter, actor, writer, and director who was born in 1983 to Nigerian parents.

Bolaji is a self-taught artist who began to paint after his acting career. He was influenced by Francis Bacon, Dubufet, Jean-Michel Basquiat and ideas that run back to the 1960s Oshogbo Art Movement in Nigeria. He says: “Painting for me, can very much be like improvisation or devising in the theatre. One puts an idea of a kind down and one responds (truthfully) to it ... It's a constant conversation a visual dialogue with the subject matter always at the centre, until one arrives at the image which arguably has always been there since, I am always asking myself what is necessary .. Or responding honestly (as best as I can) to each part. Consequently, I arrive at the final image and know my part of the conversation is done, it's now left for others to view it and have their own opinion/dialogue ... Irrespective of mine.”

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