Kelani Fatai

Born 1994 in Mushin, Lagos, Kelani Fatai is an emerging visual artist. His works have been collected in various prestigious institutions and private collections located in the United States and the United Kingdom. He has extensively exhibited in group shows in Nigeria and outside.  

Kelani found his passion for visual art from a very early age. He initially pursued a course in art and design from the renowned Yaba College of Technology, Yaba, Lagos. Later, he trained under two famous Lagos-based artists Damilola Opedum and Muyiwa Williams. He graduated with a Higher National Diploma in painting from a tertiary institution. Kelani practices art in an assorted range of media including acrylic, oil, watercolour, charcoal, and pastel. Bordering between impressionist, expressionist and surrealistic tendencies of art practice, his paintings contain motifs that are borrowed from his imaginative realm as well as impending reality. More importantly, they are a retelling of colonial advent in the African communities and the influence that persisted for centuries among the people. The flowery background in his paintings is either a ridicule or a sense of orientalism.

Inspired by his surrounding, for Kelani nature and environment plays a crucial role as the source of his artistic thinking. Many of his paintings portray himself, either alone or with somebody, which provides us with an idea of the method of his practice. The paintings refer to him either as a narrator or somebody who is gazing out at the viewer. He is either mocking or concerned, the aspects that reflect through his colourful palette. He is quite appreciated in his local as well as international art scene.