by Jojolola Dopamu (Curator at Soto Gallery) In a time where connectivity saturates every corner of life, solitude—when explored with nuance— emerges as both radical and deeply necessary. For Balafaama, solitude was never a choice but a reality she learned to navigate, one brushstroke at a time. Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, Balafaama used art […]
3 months ago
by
Jojolola Dopamu (Curator at Soto Gallery)
In a time where connectivity saturates every corner of life, solitude—when explored with nuance— emerges as both radical and deeply necessary. For Balafaama, solitude was never a choice but a reality she learned to navigate, one brushstroke at a time.
Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, Balafaama used art as a refuge from the depression that shadowed her from a young age. What began as an outlet for the dark clouds that loomed over her soon became something more—an entire world of self-expression, a means of confronting the depths of her emotions. Despite an environment that was only sometimes receptive to her darker themes, she nurtured her talents with quiet persistence. Her journey, though marked by the influence of friends-turned-mentors, was largely a lonesome one, shaped by self-teaching, self-musing, and an unrelenting need to create. With no formal training, she turned to trial and error, learning through YouTube tutorials but ultimately forging her own path. In doing so, she became both student and muse, developing an artistic language that speaks in hushed, yet profoundly moving tones.
This is the space Balafaama’s work occupies: a quiet confrontation with the human emotional condition. Far from offering mere aesthetics, her paintings compel us to look inward, pulling us into a conversation about individuality, longing, and inner reckoning.
Lingering Solace (2023): The Defiant Quiet
In Lingering Solace, Balafaama transforms an ordinary, intimate moment—dining alone—into an understated act of defiance. Set within the private confines of an apartment, the piece revels in contrasts: warm, glowing reds play against weighty, enveloping shadows, creating a tension as palpable as it is haunting.
What lingers here is its duality. Eating is, after all, a communal ritual. Yet this solitary feast feels deliberate. There is a quiet insistence on independence, though a faint yearning seeps through in the downward tilt of the figure’s gaze. It’s a meditation on isolation—chosen or otherwise—and the human craving for connection, executed with painterly precision and emotional generosity. This delicate tension between solitude and its silent discomfort anchors the work and pulls the viewer into its uneasy beauty.
Healing (2022): Tender Resilience
Healing immerses us in a lush wash of purples, soft yet full of depth, as a lone figure holds a glowing orb—a small, radiant world cradled in their hands. There is vulnerability here, a tender kind of strength that reveals itself not in grand gestures but in quiet stillness. The orb becomes a symbol for renewal, light held tightly during a moment of struggle.
It’s deeply personal, yet unmistakably universal. Anyone who’s sought a semblance of calm amid life’s bruises will find something familiar in this work. If the piece leans slightly toward harshness in its sharper edges and transitions, this only underscores the unevenness of the healing process itself—hard, yet hopeful. It’s the kind of image that stays with you, asking questions rather than offering easy answers.
Hope (2021): Color in Despair
With Hope, Balafaama leans into stark simplicity: a teary protagonist against a near-monochrome background of blacks and muted browns. This setting, heavy and sombre, feels deliberately empty, as though mirroring the vastness of loneliness. The figure’s expression—pained, weary—is unflinching in its honesty. But it is the tears that make this piece electric: bold, rainbow-hued cascades falling like a torrent.
Those tears, impossibly vibrant, change everything. They are not sorrow contained; they are sorrow transformed, pouring out in the hopeful language of color. This is struggle—intense and specific, echoing the ache of a closeted existence, of fear and alienation—but also resilience. The rainbow weaves a thread of optimism into the despair, like light breaking through a storm cloud.
It’s a simple composition, but nothing feels accidental. The work pulses with emotional immediacy, laying bare the ache of rejection but daring to imagine brighter days.
A Lingering Invitation
Across this body of work, Balafaama balances subtlety with undeniable emotional depth. In her solitude, her figures resist oblivion; they breathe and yearn and remember what it is to hope. These pieces do not shout; they whisper—soft, resolute, and unafraid of stillness. What lingers most, perhaps, is an invitation for the viewer to find themselves within these quiet, reflective worlds.
