By Simeon Mpamugoh
What do you want to manifest in your thoughts. For Naomi Oyeniyi, a multiple award winning artist, her thoughts recently manifested in 18 colourful works of fine art that were recently presented to the art loving public.
Naomi Oyeniyi
The exhibition which is her maiden solo is mounted on the walls of Tribe XX Lab, 77, Awolowo Rd, Unit 2, Fourth Floor, same building as Spar Supermarket, Ikoyi Lagos. The exhibition which is entitled " See What Your Thoughts Manifest," has Emalohi Uruobe as it curator. It is being presented by The Abele Art Foundation and run from July 23-31, 2023.
A contemporary artist who obtained her B.A. Honours degree in Fine And Applied Art, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile Ife, Naomi Oyeniyi is a specialist in painting. She loves to express her emotions and inner self on canvas by delving into the intricate and transformative exploration of personal identity.
Through the series of works for this exhibition, she seeks to illuminate the profound and often challenging process of self discovery, the journey through understanding, and improving herself.
"With the use of vibrant colours, dynamic compositions, expressive brush strokes and pallet knifes strokes, I aim to evoke a range of emotions and create an immersive experience. So each painting that I create was a unique visual representation of introspection, growth and self reflection," she intones to select Journalists who came to capture the opening ceremony of the exhibition.
Through the theme of the exhibition, she captures the essence of thoughts manifested into reality. "I believe that our thoughts have the potential to shape our world, influence the course of our lives and create the reality we experience. 
"In this maiden edition of my solo exhibition, there are three series of works on display. The first one is entitled: "In My Thoughts." This is followed by "Unspoken Words," and lastly "Within My Candy." "In My Thoughts," is a series of paintings reflecting the thoughts of a soul. It shows the loved ones we hold dear to our hearts, which keep us going even in the tough times. We carry their thoughts everywhere we go and this gives us hope not to give up on our journey to delivering our dreams as the race isn't for ourselves alone but for all those who pertain to us and look up to us.
"The "Unspoken Words," is a series of paintings whereby what is seen on the outside is beautiful, and one's perceived achievements by the way one looks, dresses, and what one possesses. It is represented in the imagery through the use of flowers and fruits but the work put into achieving all the glamour is unknown. The battles one has face and/or is facing to achieving one's life accomplishments is only known to the soul. After all, life is bought again, and we have to keep playing and winning through challenges and struggles to be what we want to be and always celebrated.
"The third series is "Within My Candy." It is a series of works representing the goodies of life that we enjoy after scaling through the hurdles of life. Everyday comes with it own challenges which we have to conquer to move to the next level. We sit down to enjoy fruits of our labour. And if you look at the works of "In My Candy," series, we have the fruits, honey and other goodies and it keeps getting better at every stage of our lives."
On what drives her as an artist inspite of many challenges, she said, "I'm driven by my own personal stories, and immediate environment. I draw my inspiration from the spiritual, physical and metaphysical forces."
She disclosed that her technique and medium in painting revolves around the use of oil colour and pallet knife, which is her major in terms of showing the textures, lines, and strokes. "I also use brush strokes to create flat surfaces while the pallet knife is to show the textures through the use of vivid colours and strokes to evoke emotion and ideas on canvas."
The opening ceremony of the exhibition witnessed in attendance artists, administrators and lovers of art from different parts of the country who came to see what Naomi's thoughts birthed in the past few years. One of the artists who is equally a Nigerian contemporary artist is Luke Osaro who says that he is impressed with the works exhibited by the artist..
"Naomi Oyeniyi has got lovely paintings. Her pattern interests me the most and what I found most intriguing in "In My Thoughts," series is how she was able to manipulate several paintings in one canvas. For example, having human figure, and the mind speaking at the background of that human figure with so many thoughts flowing in and out of the minimal space being used by the artist is intriguing.
"The works like a friend will say are "wonderments." I didn't know that she was a product of Obafemi Awolowo University, (OAU). I was surprised to hear that because such magnitude of works are usually attributed to artists who graduated from Yaba College of Technology and Auchi Polytechnics but coming from the 'Great Ife," like myself, I'm very amazed," Osaro said.
Also on the row call of artists that graced the opening ceremony is Toromade Tosin, a painter and school mate of the artist. He said. "Naomi is a great friend and talented artist. I have known her since her undergraduate days. She is relentless in her style of work and she has evolved with the contemporary times. I'm just seeing this début Solo exhibition as wonderful. I'm not disappointed with the works she has shown on this exhibition. In fact I'm impressed seeing that from the time as a student to when we were together in a studio, to what she has right now, there is so much growth in her style and depths of philosophy."
On the list of commendations to this prodigious artist is a staff of the department of Fine And Applied Art, OAU Ile Ife, Wale Oyeniyi who came to observe and show solidarity with the artist, who is equally an alumnus of the university. "I'm here to observe and support one of our own and to project our people through art so they can get to know more about us especially when you have the market space in Lagos.
"It is amazing this particular exhibition is about 'thoughts' because it is one thing everyone of us must have gone through one way or another.You can have positive or negative thoughts. But It is quite amazing how people get to dwell on positive thoughts. Of course, the negative thoughts could be positive sometimes since we've all been there in one thought or another. Thoughts of good or evil. Whatever is the thoughts within, what matters is how well we resonate between what we have seen in this exhibition."
Waxing therapeutic, Wale Oyeniyi said.
"I'm sure each and everyone of us could identify something that speaks to our spirit within our thoughts. This is more of open-ended title but seen in an exhibition such as this. In this period and time, we have a lot of people dealing in mental stress, illness, and depression. We always tell them to talk about it. This artist has talked about her own thoughts by giving us visual representation of it. So if the artist has communicated with her viewers who came into her space, I also encourage others to try and talk about what the matter might be in their own space. Though it might be discouraging talking to someone who might not be able to help out, yet let's find someone to talk to, we never can tell who is out there to help us out of depression."
Mr Adebayo Alabi is a public administrator and an art lover. He described the works paraded by Naomi as fantastic. "What I mean by this description is that her works are exceptional. Looking at the creativity and volume of work she puts into the making of those works on exhibition, one would notice that she has really done a lot of work putting the exhibition together.
"I'm so impressed particularly about the thoughts and imaginations that are behind all the artworks. It is fantastic! Moreso the works dwell on everyday life and what affects everybody. The artist has been able to put in art form some of the thoughts we have as individuals, which come as imagination inspite of our day to day activities. It is indeed commendable. And the way she combined oil on canvas has been fantastic. In most of her works I have seen so far, she was able to mix her oil very well which makes them look real. She really put a lot of thoughts into it.
"It is essential to add that many of her works are portraits of family values. In our society today, the family is the base and foundation and with all that is happening within our environment, I think promoting the family and immediate unit through art is commendable."
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