Oba’s Gambit, 2025 Acrylic paint on canvas 2.5 x 3.5 ft A portrait honouring the beauty, elegance & vigor of the African heritage.

Babajide Francis Akinnawo is a multidisciplinary visual artist and art director whose practice spans fine art, performance, and cultural advocacy. With over six years of progressive experience, he has held two solo exhibitions—Essence: Exploring Self, Society and Humanity (2021) and Through Darkness, Shining Light (2024).

He also serves as Creative Director for the Green Camp Festival, a platform dedicated to nurturing underground and emerging creative talent across Nigeria.

Known for his imaginative visual language and socially engaged themes, Babajide’s works explore the complexities of the human condition. He holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy from the University of Lagos and is currently pursuing an MFA in Fine and Studio Arts (Painting & Drawing) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Artist Statement

My works started out as pencil and charcoal hyperrealism, progressing to acrylic paintings. Generally, I use portraiture as a means to tell stories, exploring the human condition, especially related to mental and physical wellness. In my second studio exhibition, “Through Darkness, Shining Light”, I explore grief, anxiety, self-concept, depression, deformity, and healing.

I believe in harnessing the power of art to encourage social justice and societal transformation. In my painting “Curfew: 20-10-20”, I immortalize the moment before the Lekki Massacre, when the Nigerian military shot at protesting citizens during the nationwide #ENDSARS protest against police brutality. In “Birdbox”, I use newspaper cutouts featuring headlines that show the declining state of Nigeria to form a collage of the president’s cap.

I’m interested in discovering and experimenting with painting techniques that brilliantly defy the boundaries of conventionality. In this regard, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s bold approach has been a guiding light. I’m taken by his mastery of textured composition, symbolism, and graffiti in fine art. The rawness and immediacy of his style, and the way he initiates momentous dialogues through his social commentaries; for example, about racism. I’m inspired by enduring painters like Pablo Picasso, whose careers have taught me that art, beyond expression or destination, is a lifelong journey of creation and self-discovery that must transcend the artist’s last breath. Likewise, I consider myself a stubborn artist with an unshakeable resolve to unlock my fullest potential and embody the stories only I can tell.