How Omoboriowo’s skills capture emotions in portrait art

Whatever it takes for an artist to study people’s emotions, Oluwafemi Omoboriowo seems to have the style and technique just as his choice of monochrome creates relativity in capturing the subjects’ feelings. But Omoboriowo’s style and technique in portrait art are not exactly immuned from traps that may mar an artist’s skills.

Between monochrome and colour, every artist’s choice in capturing emotions depends largely on quite a number of factors. An artist’s mastery of any of the paper medium such as watercolour, pastel and charcoal could enhance the goal of creating a perfect art. For some other artists, monochrome has limitations in bringing out the best, especially when it comes to creating emotions.

But Omoboriowo’s choice of monochrome, specifically, black and white, though expands his path on the journey of contemporary art, the hue and shades offers little escape into broad expression. Is Omoboriowo taking too much risk than his monochrome choice can offer? The answer lies in two works titled ‘Beyond the Laughter’ and ‘Deep Thoughts’, in which the artist in him also doubles a psychologist. Each of the works would make art critics have desk-load as well as give psychologists enough to chew and spit in emotional analysis.

Whoever is curious to know what goes on in the minds of entertainers such as comedians – before or after their stage acts – Omoboriowo’s ‘Beyond the Laughter’ has an idea. A portrait style facial capturing of a young man with dreadlocks, and not exactly pleasant transmission of feeling, perhaps exposes the other side of the entertainers that make others happy. “Beyond the Laughter was created to look into the layers that exist behind the surface of a comedian’s life—specifically, an African/Nigerian comic who has dedicated their life to bringing joy to others,” Omoboriowo explains the concept of the work. “We frequently view comedians through the prism of laughing, equating them with lightheartedness and happiness. But when I learnt more about the issue and explored the emotional depth underlying each joke, I realised there was so much more to discover.”

Comedians, actors, musicians and even visual artists, are first and foremost, humans like every other persons before being whatever their skills make out of them. In Omoboriowo’s ‘Beyond the Laughter’, the artist loads the subject with quite a number of contents, even beyond the emotive context of his focus. While the artist’s focus is on the unseen emotions of the comedian, the fashion statement in dreadlocks and the earring piece combined adds to documentation of contemporary culture of 21st century.

And in every art piece, some contents either boost the focus and intention of the artist, or distract viewers. For Omoboriowo’s ‘Beyond the Laughter’, the fashion statement appears more of interest than whatever emotive issue that the artist intended to communicate. However, the artist insisted that every style and technique applied are deliberate to arrive at his set goal of creating art loaded with emotions . “I chose to show the comic at a quiet moment of introspection rather than during a performance. The meticulous representation of their dreadlocks, as well as the upward gaze—looking directly at the sky with a contemplative expression—were deliberate. This look implies a search for something higher, a meditation on the immensity of the universe, or possibly a personal desire for meaning beyond the laughter they generate.”

A more critical view of Omoboriowo’s ‘Deep Thoughts’ makes one ponder over possible gender factor in meditation. Yes, there is a gender line, so suggests the artist’s capturing of what he describes as an African lady who is about to make a decision of a lifetime. For Omoboriowo, the gender perspective also comes with cultural or racial differences

Before going into the artist’s perspective of makes ‘Deep Thoughts’, it is of interest to note slight eclectic tone between the two works that dwell in emotive subjects. Comparatively, as an art piece, ‘Deep Thoughts’ appears like a piece from an artist whose skills in light, shades and hues is more sharpened than whoever created ‘Beyond the Laughter’. Interestingly, the two works are from the same artist, suggesting that each piece is driven by the mood or thoughts of the artist as regards toning.

What exactly the gender line that Omoboriowo captured in ‘Deep Thoughts’? “Here is Ama, about to graduate from the university and then she is forced to think of what next to do, I mean life comes at you like a flash but still let’s act like we have control over it,” the artist narrates a familiar dilemma of most Africans across gender. “Another degree, marriage, work, learn a trade, what next? Her parents think the next step should be to get a job and marry but she wants more from life.”

As a mixed media artist, Omoboriowo, according to his bio, excels in making extremely detailed pieces. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Art at Teesside University in the UK.