Solomon Omogboye

Solomon Omogboye is a gifted impressionist painter born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1982. He studied art and industrial design at the Lagos State Polytechnic before starting work at the Lagos National Theatre. He won the AADS Best Artist of the Year award in 2007.

Omogboye worked as an art teacher for six years before moving to South Africa in 2014. "I've always been a prolific painter, encouraged by my mother, a teacher," he says. "My paintings reflect my thoughts, inspiration and ideas, using mainly charcoal, pastel, acrylic and oil on canvas.

Omogboye has exhibited his work in Lagos, Johannesburg, Franschhoek and in Théoule-sur-Mer, France. His bold, lively paintings, characterised by energetic, bold strokes and capturing playful expressions of human anatomy, have attracted local and international attention for many years, firmly settling him among Nigeria's leading artists.

"The beauty I see in every existence is my inspiration to paint," he says. "For me, painting is a practice of focusing intentions moment to moment – mirroring what life is really about."

This gifted and humble artist says he finds inspiration wherever he travels – and it's not always the obvious thing that catches his eye. "My paintings reflect what I continue to learn in life: that the only perfection is imperfection and the appreciation of what is."