Artist Spotlight - Dennis Osadebe
Tradition meets modernity in the colourful works of Dennis Osadebe...
By
Adam Wells
October 6, 2021
Born in 1991, self-taught Nigerian Mixed-media artist Dennis Osadebe is defined in part by his mixing of the traditional and the modern. He composes his work digitally, before painting onto the prints with bold, colourful acrylic, making the physical pieces themselves unique and impossible to reproduce. Osadebe refers to his style as ‘Neo-Africa’, a term he coined in corrective response to the reductive ascription of ‘African Art’, and one which carries with it the implicit artistic legitimacy often downplayed, or even erased, by that description.
Osadebe’s work is often playful in its relation to the wider art world; The Nigerian Dream, for instance, stands as one of many reinterpretations of Western art, in this case Grant Wood’s American Gothic. In these pieces, the artworks are reproduced with the iconography of African culture inserted in a style both humorous and provocative, with Osadebe blending cultures in the same way that he blends physical and digital art.
In the same way that his methods combine the traditional with the contemporary, so too does the content of Osabede’s work. As well as representing the apparent facelessness of African figures in Western artistic tradition, the use of traditional African masks and space-helmets reflect this dichotomy, combining the old with the new.
In placing the mask and the space-helmet side-by-side like this, Osabede encourages the viewer to reconsider and recontextualise the historical art of Africa within the context of the rapidly-changing modern world. The traditional style of the African mask within the post-pop aesthetic of his work further suggests this, as well as the frequent parodying of other existing artworks.
With an exhibition at New York’s GR Gallery earlier this year, along with his recent collaboration with Racquet Magazine, Dennis Osadebe has established himself as a rising talent within the art world, arguably founding a new artistic movement in ‘Neo-Africa’.
Dennis Osadebe’s work can be found at https://www.dennisosadebe.com/ and @dennisosabede on Instagram.
Born in 1991, self-taught Nigerian Mixed-media artist Dennis Osadebe is defined in part by his mixing of the traditional and the modern. He composes his work digitally, before painting onto the prints with bold, colourful acrylic, making the physical pieces themselves unique and impossible to reproduce. Osadebe refers to his style as ‘Neo-Africa’, a term he coined in corrective response to the reductive ascription of ‘African Art’, and one which carries with it the implicit artistic legitimacy often downplayed, or even erased, by that description.
Osadebe’s work is often playful in its relation to the wider art world; The Nigerian Dream, for instance, stands as one of many reinterpretations of Western art, in this case Grant Wood’s American Gothic. In these pieces, the artworks are reproduced with the iconography of African culture inserted in a style both humorous and provocative, with Osadebe blending cultures in the same way that he blends physical and digital art.
In the same way that his methods combine the traditional with the contemporary, so too does the content of Osabede’s work. As well as representing the apparent facelessness of African figures in Western artistic tradition, the use of traditional African masks and space-helmets reflect this dichotomy, combining the old with the new.
In placing the mask and the space-helmet side-by-side like this, Osabede encourages the viewer to reconsider and recontextualise the historical art of Africa within the context of the rapidly-changing modern world. The traditional style of the African mask within the post-pop aesthetic of his work further suggests this, as well as the frequent parodying of other existing artworks.
With an exhibition at New York’s GR Gallery earlier this year, along with his recent collaboration with Racquet Magazine, Dennis Osadebe has established himself as a rising talent within the art world, arguably founding a new artistic movement in ‘Neo-Africa’.
Dennis Osadebe’s work can be found at https://www.dennisosadebe.com/ and @dennisosabede on Instagram.
Born in 1991, self-taught Nigerian Mixed-media artist Dennis Osadebe is defined in part by his mixing of the traditional and the modern. He composes his work digitally, before painting onto the prints with bold, colourful acrylic, making the physical pieces themselves unique and impossible to reproduce. Osadebe refers to his style as ‘Neo-Africa’, a term he coined in corrective response to the reductive ascription of ‘African Art’, and one which carries with it the implicit artistic legitimacy often downplayed, or even erased, by that description.
Osadebe’s work is often playful in its relation to the wider art world; The Nigerian Dream, for instance, stands as one of many reinterpretations of Western art, in this case Grant Wood’s American Gothic. In these pieces, the artworks are reproduced with the iconography of African culture inserted in a style both humorous and provocative, with Osadebe blending cultures in the same way that he blends physical and digital art.
In the same way that his methods combine the traditional with the contemporary, so too does the content of Osabede’s work. As well as representing the apparent facelessness of African figures in Western artistic tradition, the use of traditional African masks and space-helmets reflect this dichotomy, combining the old with the new.
In placing the mask and the space-helmet side-by-side like this, Osabede encourages the viewer to reconsider and recontextualise the historical art of Africa within the context of the rapidly-changing modern world. The traditional style of the African mask within the post-pop aesthetic of his work further suggests this, as well as the frequent parodying of other existing artworks.
With an exhibition at New York’s GR Gallery earlier this year, along with his recent collaboration with Racquet Magazine, Dennis Osadebe has established himself as a rising talent within the art world, arguably founding a new artistic movement in ‘Neo-Africa’.
Dennis Osadebe’s work can be found at https://www.dennisosadebe.com/ and @dennisosabede on Instagram.
Born in 1991, self-taught Nigerian Mixed-media artist Dennis Osadebe is defined in part by his mixing of the traditional and the modern. He composes his work digitally, before painting onto the prints with bold, colourful acrylic, making the physical pieces themselves unique and impossible to reproduce. Osadebe refers to his style as ‘Neo-Africa’, a term he coined in corrective response to the reductive ascription of ‘African Art’, and one which carries with it the implicit artistic legitimacy often downplayed, or even erased, by that description.
Osadebe’s work is often playful in its relation to the wider art world; The Nigerian Dream, for instance, stands as one of many reinterpretations of Western art, in this case Grant Wood’s American Gothic. In these pieces, the artworks are reproduced with the iconography of African culture inserted in a style both humorous and provocative, with Osadebe blending cultures in the same way that he blends physical and digital art.
In the same way that his methods combine the traditional with the contemporary, so too does the content of Osabede’s work. As well as representing the apparent facelessness of African figures in Western artistic tradition, the use of traditional African masks and space-helmets reflect this dichotomy, combining the old with the new.
In placing the mask and the space-helmet side-by-side like this, Osabede encourages the viewer to reconsider and recontextualise the historical art of Africa within the context of the rapidly-changing modern world. The traditional style of the African mask within the post-pop aesthetic of his work further suggests this, as well as the frequent parodying of other existing artworks.
With an exhibition at New York’s GR Gallery earlier this year, along with his recent collaboration with Racquet Magazine, Dennis Osadebe has established himself as a rising talent within the art world, arguably founding a new artistic movement in ‘Neo-Africa’.
Dennis Osadebe’s work can be found at https://www.dennisosadebe.com/ and @dennisosabede on Instagram.
Born in 1991, self-taught Nigerian Mixed-media artist Dennis Osadebe is defined in part by his mixing of the traditional and the modern. He composes his work digitally, before painting onto the prints with bold, colourful acrylic, making the physical pieces themselves unique and impossible to reproduce. Osadebe refers to his style as ‘Neo-Africa’, a term he coined in corrective response to the reductive ascription of ‘African Art’, and one which carries with it the implicit artistic legitimacy often downplayed, or even erased, by that description.
Osadebe’s work is often playful in its relation to the wider art world; The Nigerian Dream, for instance, stands as one of many reinterpretations of Western art, in this case Grant Wood’s American Gothic. In these pieces, the artworks are reproduced with the iconography of African culture inserted in a style both humorous and provocative, with Osadebe blending cultures in the same way that he blends physical and digital art.
In the same way that his methods combine the traditional with the contemporary, so too does the content of Osabede’s work. As well as representing the apparent facelessness of African figures in Western artistic tradition, the use of traditional African masks and space-helmets reflect this dichotomy, combining the old with the new.
In placing the mask and the space-helmet side-by-side like this, Osabede encourages the viewer to reconsider and recontextualise the historical art of Africa within the context of the rapidly-changing modern world. The traditional style of the African mask within the post-pop aesthetic of his work further suggests this, as well as the frequent parodying of other existing artworks.
With an exhibition at New York’s GR Gallery earlier this year, along with his recent collaboration with Racquet Magazine, Dennis Osadebe has established himself as a rising talent within the art world, arguably founding a new artistic movement in ‘Neo-Africa’.
Dennis Osadebe’s work can be found at https://www.dennisosadebe.com/ and @dennisosabede on Instagram.
Born in 1991, self-taught Nigerian Mixed-media artist Dennis Osadebe is defined in part by his mixing of the traditional and the modern. He composes his work digitally, before painting onto the prints with bold, colourful acrylic, making the physical pieces themselves unique and impossible to reproduce. Osadebe refers to his style as ‘Neo-Africa’, a term he coined in corrective response to the reductive ascription of ‘African Art’, and one which carries with it the implicit artistic legitimacy often downplayed, or even erased, by that description.
Osadebe’s work is often playful in its relation to the wider art world; The Nigerian Dream, for instance, stands as one of many reinterpretations of Western art, in this case Grant Wood’s American Gothic. In these pieces, the artworks are reproduced with the iconography of African culture inserted in a style both humorous and provocative, with Osadebe blending cultures in the same way that he blends physical and digital art.
In the same way that his methods combine the traditional with the contemporary, so too does the content of Osabede’s work. As well as representing the apparent facelessness of African figures in Western artistic tradition, the use of traditional African masks and space-helmets reflect this dichotomy, combining the old with the new.
In placing the mask and the space-helmet side-by-side like this, Osabede encourages the viewer to reconsider and recontextualise the historical art of Africa within the context of the rapidly-changing modern world. The traditional style of the African mask within the post-pop aesthetic of his work further suggests this, as well as the frequent parodying of other existing artworks.
With an exhibition at New York’s GR Gallery earlier this year, along with his recent collaboration with Racquet Magazine, Dennis Osadebe has established himself as a rising talent within the art world, arguably founding a new artistic movement in ‘Neo-Africa’.
Dennis Osadebe’s work can be found at https://www.dennisosadebe.com/ and @dennisosabede on Instagram.
Born in 1991, self-taught Nigerian Mixed-media artist Dennis Osadebe is defined in part by his mixing of the traditional and the modern. He composes his work digitally, before painting onto the prints with bold, colourful acrylic, making the physical pieces themselves unique and impossible to reproduce. Osadebe refers to his style as ‘Neo-Africa’, a term he coined in corrective response to the reductive ascription of ‘African Art’, and one which carries with it the implicit artistic legitimacy often downplayed, or even erased, by that description.
Osadebe’s work is often playful in its relation to the wider art world; The Nigerian Dream, for instance, stands as one of many reinterpretations of Western art, in this case Grant Wood’s American Gothic. In these pieces, the artworks are reproduced with the iconography of African culture inserted in a style both humorous and provocative, with Osadebe blending cultures in the same way that he blends physical and digital art.
In the same way that his methods combine the traditional with the contemporary, so too does the content of Osabede’s work. As well as representing the apparent facelessness of African figures in Western artistic tradition, the use of traditional African masks and space-helmets reflect this dichotomy, combining the old with the new.
In placing the mask and the space-helmet side-by-side like this, Osabede encourages the viewer to reconsider and recontextualise the historical art of Africa within the context of the rapidly-changing modern world. The traditional style of the African mask within the post-pop aesthetic of his work further suggests this, as well as the frequent parodying of other existing artworks.
With an exhibition at New York’s GR Gallery earlier this year, along with his recent collaboration with Racquet Magazine, Dennis Osadebe has established himself as a rising talent within the art world, arguably founding a new artistic movement in ‘Neo-Africa’.
Dennis Osadebe’s work can be found at https://www.dennisosadebe.com/ and @dennisosabede on Instagram.
Born in 1991, self-taught Nigerian Mixed-media artist Dennis Osadebe is defined in part by his mixing of the traditional and the modern. He composes his work digitally, before painting onto the prints with bold, colourful acrylic, making the physical pieces themselves unique and impossible to reproduce. Osadebe refers to his style as ‘Neo-Africa’, a term he coined in corrective response to the reductive ascription of ‘African Art’, and one which carries with it the implicit artistic legitimacy often downplayed, or even erased, by that description.
Osadebe’s work is often playful in its relation to the wider art world; The Nigerian Dream, for instance, stands as one of many reinterpretations of Western art, in this case Grant Wood’s American Gothic. In these pieces, the artworks are reproduced with the iconography of African culture inserted in a style both humorous and provocative, with Osadebe blending cultures in the same way that he blends physical and digital art.
In the same way that his methods combine the traditional with the contemporary, so too does the content of Osabede’s work. As well as representing the apparent facelessness of African figures in Western artistic tradition, the use of traditional African masks and space-helmets reflect this dichotomy, combining the old with the new.
In placing the mask and the space-helmet side-by-side like this, Osabede encourages the viewer to reconsider and recontextualise the historical art of Africa within the context of the rapidly-changing modern world. The traditional style of the African mask within the post-pop aesthetic of his work further suggests this, as well as the frequent parodying of other existing artworks.
With an exhibition at New York’s GR Gallery earlier this year, along with his recent collaboration with Racquet Magazine, Dennis Osadebe has established himself as a rising talent within the art world, arguably founding a new artistic movement in ‘Neo-Africa’.
Dennis Osadebe’s work can be found at https://www.dennisosadebe.com/ and @dennisosabede on Instagram.
Born in 1991, self-taught Nigerian Mixed-media artist Dennis Osadebe is defined in part by his mixing of the traditional and the modern. He composes his work digitally, before painting onto the prints with bold, colourful acrylic, making the physical pieces themselves unique and impossible to reproduce. Osadebe refers to his style as ‘Neo-Africa’, a term he coined in corrective response to the reductive ascription of ‘African Art’, and one which carries with it the implicit artistic legitimacy often downplayed, or even erased, by that description.
Osadebe’s work is often playful in its relation to the wider art world; The Nigerian Dream, for instance, stands as one of many reinterpretations of Western art, in this case Grant Wood’s American Gothic. In these pieces, the artworks are reproduced with the iconography of African culture inserted in a style both humorous and provocative, with Osadebe blending cultures in the same way that he blends physical and digital art.
In the same way that his methods combine the traditional with the contemporary, so too does the content of Osabede’s work. As well as representing the apparent facelessness of African figures in Western artistic tradition, the use of traditional African masks and space-helmets reflect this dichotomy, combining the old with the new.
In placing the mask and the space-helmet side-by-side like this, Osabede encourages the viewer to reconsider and recontextualise the historical art of Africa within the context of the rapidly-changing modern world. The traditional style of the African mask within the post-pop aesthetic of his work further suggests this, as well as the frequent parodying of other existing artworks.
With an exhibition at New York’s GR Gallery earlier this year, along with his recent collaboration with Racquet Magazine, Dennis Osadebe has established himself as a rising talent within the art world, arguably founding a new artistic movement in ‘Neo-Africa’.
Dennis Osadebe’s work can be found at https://www.dennisosadebe.com/ and @dennisosabede on Instagram.
Born in 1991, self-taught Nigerian Mixed-media artist Dennis Osadebe is defined in part by his mixing of the traditional and the modern. He composes his work digitally, before painting onto the prints with bold, colourful acrylic, making the physical pieces themselves unique and impossible to reproduce. Osadebe refers to his style as ‘Neo-Africa’, a term he coined in corrective response to the reductive ascription of ‘African Art’, and one which carries with it the implicit artistic legitimacy often downplayed, or even erased, by that description.
Osadebe’s work is often playful in its relation to the wider art world; The Nigerian Dream, for instance, stands as one of many reinterpretations of Western art, in this case Grant Wood’s American Gothic. In these pieces, the artworks are reproduced with the iconography of African culture inserted in a style both humorous and provocative, with Osadebe blending cultures in the same way that he blends physical and digital art.
In the same way that his methods combine the traditional with the contemporary, so too does the content of Osabede’s work. As well as representing the apparent facelessness of African figures in Western artistic tradition, the use of traditional African masks and space-helmets reflect this dichotomy, combining the old with the new.
In placing the mask and the space-helmet side-by-side like this, Osabede encourages the viewer to reconsider and recontextualise the historical art of Africa within the context of the rapidly-changing modern world. The traditional style of the African mask within the post-pop aesthetic of his work further suggests this, as well as the frequent parodying of other existing artworks.
With an exhibition at New York’s GR Gallery earlier this year, along with his recent collaboration with Racquet Magazine, Dennis Osadebe has established himself as a rising talent within the art world, arguably founding a new artistic movement in ‘Neo-Africa’.
Dennis Osadebe’s work can be found at https://www.dennisosadebe.com/ and @dennisosabede on Instagram.
Born in 1991, self-taught Nigerian Mixed-media artist Dennis Osadebe is defined in part by his mixing of the traditional and the modern. He composes his work digitally, before painting onto the prints with bold, colourful acrylic, making the physical pieces themselves unique and impossible to reproduce. Osadebe refers to his style as ‘Neo-Africa’, a term he coined in corrective response to the reductive ascription of ‘African Art’, and one which carries with it the implicit artistic legitimacy often downplayed, or even erased, by that description.
Osadebe’s work is often playful in its relation to the wider art world; The Nigerian Dream, for instance, stands as one of many reinterpretations of Western art, in this case Grant Wood’s American Gothic. In these pieces, the artworks are reproduced with the iconography of African culture inserted in a style both humorous and provocative, with Osadebe blending cultures in the same way that he blends physical and digital art.
In the same way that his methods combine the traditional with the contemporary, so too does the content of Osabede’s work. As well as representing the apparent facelessness of African figures in Western artistic tradition, the use of traditional African masks and space-helmets reflect this dichotomy, combining the old with the new.
In placing the mask and the space-helmet side-by-side like this, Osabede encourages the viewer to reconsider and recontextualise the historical art of Africa within the context of the rapidly-changing modern world. The traditional style of the African mask within the post-pop aesthetic of his work further suggests this, as well as the frequent parodying of other existing artworks.
With an exhibition at New York’s GR Gallery earlier this year, along with his recent collaboration with Racquet Magazine, Dennis Osadebe has established himself as a rising talent within the art world, arguably founding a new artistic movement in ‘Neo-Africa’.
Dennis Osadebe’s work can be found at https://www.dennisosadebe.com/ and @dennisosabede on Instagram.
