Olufela Omokeko
The Journey: My Past, My Art, and My Hope
Olufela Omokeko
Artist Talk: March 22, 2 PM EST Zoom
Cultivate is pleased to present an artist talk and discussion with artist Olufela Omokeko. The Journey: My Past, My Art, and My Hope is a reflective artist talk that explores his personal and artistic path — from childhood memories and lived experiences to moments of loss, survival, and becoming. Through storytelling and visual references, he will share how art became both a mirror and a refuge, helping him process trauma, question his environment, and reclaim his voice. This talk is also about finding purpose in making, transforming pain into practice, and holding onto hope as a tool for personal healing and collective imagination.
About the Artist: Olufela Omokeko is a self-taught, interdisciplinary Nigerian artist working across performance, installation, photo-video art, and social practice. Since transitioning to full-time artistic practice in 2019 following alternative art education in Lagos, his work critically examines the intersections of personal memory and collective experience within contemporary Nigerian society. His practice engages themes of psycho-social dynamics, mortality, food insecurity, violence, and ecological precarity through community-based and research-driven processes.
Olufela is the founder of Slum Baker Studio, an experimental platform for socially responsive artistic inquiry. His work has been presented in solo projects including Son of a Pepper Seller and Mobile Food Museum Project. He is an alumnus of the G.A.S. Residency FoundationandPollinator Virtual Residency, and a three-time Goethe-Institute grantee, most recently for Ayetoro: Field of Gold and Rivers Black. His work will be included in the upcoming 61stVenice Biennale as part of Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation exhibition titled, In Minor Keys, curated by Koyo Kouoh.
Olufela Omokeko, The Hoe Courtyard Series (Agbala Oko)
Sculptural installation reflecting the resilience of Aiyetoro farmers, particularly women engaged in local fishing and farming. Despite environmental degradation and oil spillage, these women continue to develop survival strategies to sustain their families. The work also engages with farm proverbs, sound, and living memory.