HELLO BARRY, THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO SPEAK TO US ABOUT THE WORK YOU HAVE MADE FOR 4BYSIX AND TO TELL US ABOUT YOUR ART PRACTICE. TO START, YOUR WORK POWERFULLY ELEVATES AFRICAN MEN AND WOMEN, CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES AND CELEBRATING THEIR BEAUTY AND STRENGTH. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF YOUR ART PRACTICE, WHAT FIRST INSPIRED YOU TO BEGIN PAINTING PORTRAITS?

I started my career by making pencil sketches of my friends and family members. Over time that slowly grew into deeper questions as I became more exposed to the international art scene. Traveling through international airports and encountering different political and cultural realities made me realize that there wasn’t proper representation of Black figures in mainstream media, especially in religious contexts.

Those questions really inspired me to want to represent Black figures the way I had always seen them growing up in Nigeria. I wanted to find the right way to paint these figures in a way that exalts their rich history and celebrates their presence.

That is why in my work you often see that I strip away the traditional black skin tone and replace it with bronze or brown tones. It is my way of saying that a person is more than just their skin colour. Someone might be a great doctor, a wonderful artist, or an inventor. We should accept people for their values and humanity rather than placing them inside a box defined only by race.

I also come from a very religious Christian background, and in the Bible Christ is described as having skin like bronze. That description stayed with me. So the bronze skin tone became a language for me to represent my people with dignity, strength, and sacredness. Through this technique I created, I am able to depict Black figures the way I believe they should always have been seen.

DO YOU MAKE AN ACTIVE, INTENTIONAL CHOICE ABOUT HOW ‘BRONZE’ YOU RENDER EACH FIGURE, AND IS THAT CHOICE TIED TO THE NARRATIVE, EMOTION, OR INNER LIFE OF THE PERSON YOU’RE PAINTING? IN OTHER WORDS, DOES THE DEPTH OR TONE OF THE BRONZE SHIFT DEPENDING ON WHAT STORY YOU WANT THAT INDIVIDUAL TO TELL?

Yes, the bronze skin tones can change. They can become darker or lighter depending on the person I am painting. Africa is very diverse when it comes to skin tones. Some people have lighter skin while others have deeper tones, so the bronze also shifts in value.

My central idea is not to create one fixed colour, but to show that this person is of African descent while removing the stereotypes that society often attaches to them. By adjusting the bronze tones, I acknowledge that diversity while still keeping the focus on the person beyond the label of race.

FOLLOWING THE THEME OF BRONZE IN THE LAST QUESTION, AND REFERENCING WHEN YOU STATE ‘I AM ALL OF MY PAINTINGS’ AND THAT YOUR SUBJECTS ARE MIRRORS OF YOUR OWN STORY, DOES THE LEVEL OF BRONZE IN EACH PORTRAIT ALSO COME FROM THIS IDEA OF METAL AS A MIRROR? DO YOU THINK OF THE BRONZE EFFECT AS SOMETHING REFLECTIVE, WHERE THE SURFACE BECOMES A METAPHOR FOR HOW WE SEE OURSELVES, OUR HISTORY, AND EACH OTHER? 

The bronze skin tone in my work is deeply tied to Africa’s rich history. When you think about the innovations and technologies of pre colonial Africa, from the Benin bronze heads to early glass production, bronze has always represented value, craftsmanship, and history.

In Nigeria, bronze was traditionally connected to royalty. It was mostly royal families who could afford bronze depictions of themselves. So using bronze skin tones in my work is also a way of restoring dignity and honour to the Black figure.

When I say “I am all of my paintings,” what I mean is that every story I paint could also be my own story. Any experience a Black person has faced, whether racial, social, or economic, is something that could happen to me too.

If someone is walking down the street and is insulted or called the N word, that could be me. It could be anyone. So I do not see myself as separate from the people I paint. Their struggles and experiences are connected to mine. In that sense, every portrait becomes both their story and my story.

CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE PAINTING YOU HAVE MADE FOR 4BYSIX’S AUCTION? IS THERE SPECIFIC INTENT BEHIND THE COMPOSITION AND COLOUR PALETTE?

The piece I am making for the 4BYSIX auction sits within my current body of work called The People from Cottons to Clouds.

This body of work is about restoring the soul to the Black figure. Earlier in my career I experimented with painting Black skin using materials like charcoal and coffee, but as my practice developed I moved into the bronze language. Now I am focusing more on painting the humanity of the Black figure and the essence that makes us human.

What makes us human is that we possess a soul, an inner spirit that lifts us beyond just being physical beings. In this body of work I connect the cotton fields of the plantations to clouds in the sky because visually they share similar forms.

Enslaved people who worked in cotton plantations were reduced to labour and treated as capital. They were stripped of their identity and humanity. By transforming cotton into clouds in my paintings, I try to return that lost spirit and dignity. The clouds become a symbol of divinity, giving the figures their soul back.

GIVEN YOUR DEEP CONNECTION TO NOSTALGIA, OLD FILMS, VINTAGE COLOR PALETTES, AND TRADITIONAL AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE, HOW DID THOSE INFLUENCES SHAPE YOUR INSPIRATION FOR THE CURRENT COLLABORATION WITH 4BYSIX? WAS THERE A SPECIFIC MEMORY, AESTHETIC, OR EMOTIONAL REFERENCE FROM YOUR PAST THAT GUIDED THE DIRECTION OF THIS PROJECT?

Growing up in Nigeria, my stepdad owned a small local cinema. I spent a lot of time watching films there, especially old movies. I also listened to a lot of old music. Because of that, I naturally became drawn to vintage aesthetics, old colour palettes, classic cinema tones, and traditional environments.

That sense of nostalgia influences how I see colour and atmosphere in my work. Even the way I dress and present myself is quite old fashioned, and that sensibility translates into my paintings.

For this project I am working more within a surreal visual language. The transformation of cotton into clouds is part of that language. It is my way of giving life and soul back to the Black figure through poetic imagery.

YOUR WORK SPEAKS SO STRONGLY ABOUT LEGACY, RESPONSIBILITY, AND WHAT YOU ARE LEAVING BEHIND FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS. DOES ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY ALSO PLAY A ROLE IN YOUR PRACTICE?

My work is very much pro life, and in that sense it naturally connects to ideas of environmental responsibility. We live in the world we are talking about, and we cannot leave it. It is our duty to protect it and nurture it for our children, our grandchildren, and the generations that will come after us.

So I believe everyone has a responsibility to care for the world we inhabit.

WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT MATERIALS, PROCESSES, AND THE LONG LIFE OF YOUR WORK, DO YOU CONSCIOUSLY CONSIDER HOW YOUR ART INTERACTS WITH THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE WORLD IT WILL EXIST IN?

I have always worked with standard artist materials such as cotton canvas, linen, acrylic paints, and oil paints. These materials are traditional in painting and, like everything else, they have their own lifespan depending on how they are preserved.

While they are not permanent, they are widely accepted materials in the practice of painting. For me, the most important thing is the message behind the work and how it can influence people and change perspectives.

For this project with 4BYSIX I am excited to work with materials that are more recyclable. It is interesting for me to explore how my ideas can exist within a different material context.

FINALLY AS YOU LOOK AHEAD TO THE REST OF THE YEAR, WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED TO EXPLORE OR BUILD ON ARTISTICALLY? ARE THERE NEW IDEAS, TECHNIQUES, OR NARRATIVES YOU FEEL CALLED TO DEVELOP, OR IS THIS A PERIOD OF DEEPENING AND EXPANDING WHAT THE SUN PEOPLE AND THE BRONZE LANGUAGE ALREADY REPRESENT FOR YOU?

Right now I am very excited about expanding my current body of work The People from Cottons to Clouds. There are still many ideas within that concept that I want to explore further.

One direction I am particularly interested in is translating these ideas into sculpture. I think sculpture could open up a new dimension for expressing the same themes of soul, history, and transformation that exist in my paintings.