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Oluseye re-animates found objects and detritus collected on his trans-Atlantic travels – which he terms “diasporic debris” – to trace Blackness through its multifaceted migrations and manifestations.
Oluseye is a Nigerian-Canadian artist. Born in London in 1986, the artist spent his childhood years in Lagos, Nigeria before moving to Canada.
Using “diasporic debris” — a term he coined to describe the artifacts, discarded materials and found objects he collects from his trans-Atlantic travels — Oluseye explores Black being across themes. These transformational objects are recast into sculpture, performance and photography. Their explorations invoke Oluseye’s personal narratives and travels within a broader examination of Black and Diasporic cultures, migration and spiritual traditions. The talismans in his Eminado series physically trace and embody the transgenerational movement of the Black diaspora.
Across his practice, he embraces the notion of Blackness as divine, fluid and unfixed; unbound by time, space, and geographies. As such his work blends the ancestral with the contemporary, the traditional with the modern, the physical with the spiritual, the new with the old and the past with the future.
Oluseye has a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University, Montreal, and a Master of Science in Entrepreneurship from Bayes Business School, London, UK. He has held multiple solo exhibitions including at Daniel Faria Gallery in Toronto (2024), Southern Guild Cape Town (2023), and Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario (2021), among others.
He has participated in group exhibitions at various institutions and galleries, including the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco (2024); Gardiner Museum, Toronto (2023); Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo (2022); Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (2021); Agnes Etherington Art Center, Queen’s University, Kingston (2021); Harlem School of the Arts, New York (2018); Art X Lagos (2017) and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2015).
Oluseye’s first public art commission, Black Ark, installed in Toronto’s Ashbridges Bay Park, explores Canada’s role in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. In 2024, he won a Public Call for Black Artists and Designers by the City of Toronto for the design of a park at 254 King Street East in Moss Park, Toronto. Due for completion in 2026, his proposal was inspired by the histories of Black migration that have shaped the city.
Oluseye was an artist-in-residence at the GUILD Residency in Cape Town in early 2023, during which he worked towards his first solo exhibition with the gallery, Black Exodus: Summer Departure. Southern Guild has presented his work at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Expo Chicago and The Armory Show, New York.
Oluseye
Queen Sugar & King Cotton, 2022Antique vending machine, cotton, brown sugar
56 x 13 x 13 in. | 142.2 x 33 x 33 cm
Oluseye
Lady Soul, 2022Antique vending machine, black-eyed peas, synthetic hair, cassettes
78 x 13 x 13 in. | 198.1 x 33 x 33 cm
Oluseye
Power Figure for the American Negro, 2020Found objects, rubber, synthetic hair, nails
7¼ x 5¾ x 8¼ in.
Oluseye
Blessed Be The Negro Seed, 2022Found objects, wax, cowrie shells, timber
64.75 x 9.5 x 8.25 in.
Oluseye
Demilade II, 2020Rubber, metal, synthetic hair, leather, found objects, cowrie shells
68 x 12¼ x 10 in.
Oluseye
Eminado Series, Reunion 7, 2018 – OngoingFound objects, rubber, synthetic hair, cowry shells
38 x 26⅛ x 3 in.
Oluseye
Irukere for Mama (to nurture with discipline), 2020Found objects, cowrie shell, synthetic hair
87.75 x 3.75 x 3 in.