Charting a Decade of Transformation with Laolu Otiko

With Faces/Phases of a Solo Sojourner, Laolu Otiko invites audiences into a ten–year journey of searching, struggle, and self–discovery. The exhibition traces his evolution across distinct arcs — The Search, The Self, and The Evolved Purpose — each marking a stage in his artistic and personal growth. Through canvas, murals, digital illustration, and poetry, Otiko explores the tension between the physical and the spiritual, vulnerability and strength. 

More than just a chronological archive , the exhibition is a meditation on what it means to grow, to falter, and to find purpose. Otiko’s work carries echoes of his early days sketching on scrap paper, his leap of faith from economics to art, and the restless experiments that taught him to see every surface as a possible canvas — each one a medium offering a new way to tell stories of becoming.

In this interview, he reflects on the milestones that shaped his craft, the stories hidden within his work, and the sense of becoming that threads the entire exhibition together.

This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

You studied economics before walking away from the degree in your final year—was there a single drawing, moment, or feeling that convinced you, you could no longer ignore art?

I think I can narrow it down to the first time I got a commission to make a piece for someone back in uni. I remember the joy I felt doing that, and no offence to the school or to academics, but I did not feel that type of joy in the 4 years I was at uni. I realised I had been wasting my time, and that was all the conviction I needed to pursue art actively, not just as something I did on the side.

I had always known that I was going to be an artist, even when I thought I would have a regular career in finance or management at first. Of course, my parents were a bit disappointed with my decision, but I had made up my mind and they couldn’t change it if they wanted to. 

Stepping away from economics and into my art career in the way that I did was delusional, it was a bit of madness. There are other paths you could take to arrive at art as a career. I don’t think you have to dive into the deep end like I did, but I’m a bit of a rebel so if that’s you, follow my lead. Otherwise, I wouldn’t advise that. 

Earning a diploma in pencil sketching gave you a traditional foundation. How did that discipline in line and form shape the way you later approached digital illustration and painting?

So before I got the diploma, I used to freestyle my way into whatever I was creating. Whenever the inspiration came, I would just put it down and see where it went. 

Learning more about actual techniques that included building a foundation, layering and shadowing made me realize that although I was talented, I still needed to acquire a lot of actual skill and technical know-how. It was really pivotal to me developing a sense of style, and has made it easier for me to use other mediums — the principles are all the same. 

I would say painting on canvas is my favorite medium. When I was much younger, I used to be a perfectionist, but painting on canvas makes you realize that you need to go through the mistakes and the rough patches. It’s not supposed to make sense until it makes sense. 

You’ve described the pencil as the “first intimate conversation” between artist and idea. Can you share a memory of a time you started a “conversation” that grew into something different from what you initially intended?

At times, when you want to pass a message, a piece that is somewhat overt or too expressive doesn’t necessarily work well because it can seem all over the place. You need to focus on the main subject. You learn this through actual technique and by going through the process. It’s not something that you just start off knowing.

One particular piece that comes to mind is a personal piece; the idea that I had for it was always going to be centred around my family, my upbringing, my journey and how I got here. The first sketch I made just looked like something a fraud would have made. It was too colorful, it was bogus, it was everything on a canvas. It just did not feel right. 

I had to go back to the beginning, get on the canvas again and start with the main subject, focusing on that. Everything else had to be toned down. 

As you move through the exhibition, you can track this change through a lot of the pieces — they may be a bit much at first, but as you progress, you can see the focus is more on the subject matter. 

In moving between different mediums like acrylic, digital tools like Photoshop, and murals, do you feel each medium lets you speak to a different kind of audience?

Definitely. For example, when I do something on glass or wood, I mostly do murals and it takes someone who loves a larger expressive form to appreciate that, so I feel like when I do those pieces, I’m speaking to people who like to see a more overt style. 

With the canvas, there’s an obvious subject matter that you have to focus on. With other mediums, I can be more expressive and better tell a story, but on canvas it would be different. With digital illustrations, I also focus more on the subject matter than whatever else is going on. 

I think there’s an equal amount of admiration when people see the pieces, regardless of the medium. I have people who will see something on canvas that even I don’t think is necessarily that special, but they will go crazy over it and the next thing they see is a mural and they’ll love that too. 

The first arc — The Search explores the concepts of “man with religion, lost cultures, and the echoes of the past.” Were those themes things you were personally grappling with at the time? 

In this arc, you can feel that I was searching for a sense of belonging and one of the ways I captured that was to look into the past. Some of the pieces have symbols for Nsibidi which is a forgotten language that sort of connects us to who we are as a people and our journey through life. 

With the second arc, The Self, I was becoming a better artist but at the same time, this was where reality started to hit a little bit in my personal life. I wasn’t in my economic field, so I wasn’t making that much money. I was having doubts and questions around whether this was what I really wanted to do even though I was fairly certain it was. 

I would always try to get the subject matter of my art to be a warrior or a traveller because it represented what I was going through at that time, which was essentially — I have to get through this. 

By the time we reach The Evolved Purpose, your style is more mature and reflective. What life event or realization helped crystallize that sense of evolved purpose for you?

There were a couple of moments. One was the COVID lockdown. At that time, I saw life to be as fleeting as I had always thought it was. 

I had a bit of an artistic spiral. There was a point where I was trying everything and toying with the various ways I could be expressive. After a while, you realize that you tend to fall back on something that you’re familiar with, and that’s when you realise: this is who I am, this is my purpose, this is what I intend to do here. If you share it with the world, you share it with the world and if they like it, great.

Now, I’m stepping into a phase where I’m exploring different mediums and art forms. I’m always searching for whatever is next, what else is out there. If I got a free ticket to Mars today, I would take it immediately. We’re a part of something greater, and I’m always evolving. 

You write poetry alongside your art, and you’ve published a few books of poetry. Do your poems ever arrive first and then become paintings?

A lot of the time my art pieces arrive as poems first. Sometimes you have an image in your head and you don’t really know how to create it, but because I’ve done a lot of writing exercises, I’m able to put my words together in a dramatic way that aids the creating process.

There’s a piece I made when a certain artist passed away. I wasn’t sure how to explain the pain I felt; I didn’t know the person, I had no connection to the person, but when they passed away I felt it very deeply. I wrote about it, left it for over a year, and when I painted this piece, I remembered the poem and realized that the painting was about the artist’s passing. 

This is also one of the reasons for the exhibition; for people to see themselves connected to some of the art in a way that even they would not have been able to foresee.

If visitors only had time to see one piece in the exhibition, which work best captures your decade-long journey from The Search to The Evolved Purpose?

I would say, The One Will Become One. That is my personal statement that says; this is man and spirit. 

The piece shows a figure with two bodies and one head. One part is man, one part is spirit. These figures have gone through different phases in their lives and now they realise that they have the same head, the same mind and the same imagination. They’re now in a place where they’re fine with the duality and with showcasing that duality.

This is a digital illustration piece. 

And finally—when audiences walk away from your work, what story do you hope they carry with them about themselves?
I hope they see that not everything has to be perfect or beautiful or bogus or loud. Your mundane life is as important as that person who commands a crowd of a million people. Your everyday white rice is as good as chow mein. Enjoy your life because it’s important in every way. You might not see it in the moment, but the little things matter.