Oluseye Ogunlesi, 2023 Finalist
Oluseye is a Nigerian Canadian artist. Using diasporic debris - a term he coined to describe the found objects he collects from his travels across the Atlantic - he explores Black being across themes. He has exhibited at The Albright-Knox Musuem, Buffalo (2022); Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (2021); The Agnes Etherington Art Center, Queen’s University, Kingston (2021); and The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2015).
Learn more about 2023 Breakthrough Artist Award finalist Oluseye Ogunlesi by reading below.
In your own words, can you describe your practice and why you're drawn to the art you do?
Using diasporic debris - a term I coined to describe the found objects and discarded materials I collect from my travels across The Atlantic - I explore Black being across themes. These transformational objects are recast into sculpture, installation, performance and photography and their explorations contextualize my personal narratives within a broader examination of Black and Afro-Diasporic identities and cultures, migration, and spiritual traditions. Across my practice, I embrace the notion of Blackness as divine, fluid and unfixed; unbound by time, space, and geographies. As such my work bends the ancestral with the contemporary; the traditional with the modern; the physical with the spiritual; the new with the old; and the past with the future. I am moved to create because everywhere I have been - in Canada and abroad - there are untold stories and unacknowledged histories of Black people, spectacular stories of resilience, hope, joy, and struggle; stories which speak to our collective humanity, universal truths and the unquenchable thirst for survival. My work always begins with the oral histories which are passed on to me, and through a research driven practice, I translate these anecdotes and historical narratives into formal markers of Black and Afro-Diasporic life.
Tell us what it means to be recognized as a Toronto Arts Foundation Award finalist.
As an artist whose practice explores ways to bridge cultural understanding, this recognition is first and foremost, a nod to the people and communities whose experiences and stories continue to inspire me and the work I create. This recognition further validates my voice, my perspectives, and the singular visual language that I am honing. It is an acknowledgment of the work I am doing and the discourse I am sparking to center Black history as fundamentally Canadian history locally, provincially, nationally and globally.