Artist Ade Odedina’s “global glossary” of inspirations

A trained architect, Abe Odedina turned his back on buildings to chase a second, less prescriptive creative path as a painter. No judgement on his skill as an architect but it must have been a wise move given that in 2013 one of his paintings The Adoration of Frida won him a BP Portrait Award nomination.

Born in Ibadan, Nigeria in 1960, Abe now lives between south London and Salvador Bahia. Self-identifying as a folk artist, Abe’s striking portraits in acrylic on plywood link the figurative and oral traditions of African art with a heavy dose of magical realism. Abe’s distinctive, stylised paintings shout loud with objects and symbols “from a global glossary”, and mystical characters dug deep from the dirt of time, including goddesses (like Afro-Brazilian spirit Pomba Gira and mermaid-esque Mami Wata), magicians (such as Nigeria’s heralded real-life magic man Professor Peller) and creators, from voodoo practitioners to African craftsman. Abe’s work isn’t all symbols though: the artist relies heavily on text, dubbed “Brixton baroque”, to tell the stories of people and their cultures.

Eye to Eye is on 29 November — 4 December at Copeland Gallery, 133 Copeland Road, Peckham.