'Chaotic' layers of Ojo's therapeutic colours on canvas

'Journey Within' (acrylic on canvas, 36.83 x 50.8cm, dated 2025) by Roselyn Ojo.

THE relativity of art within the 'eye of the beholder' context is perhaps the resilience that keeps art appreciation strong, across centuries. To a large extent, abstraction has been escalating that subjectivity of art, which generations of artists have explored.

 And bringing critical context into art, within the relativity and subjectivity spaces, are abstract paintings by Roselyn Ojo, which exhale much intensity into art appreciation space. For her recent works of human-related themes, she probes into the trivial of socio-economic challenges of people, also prescribing escape routes.

 In quite a number of her non-human centred themes, Ojo applies the mystery of abstraction in creating cosmic themes that further escalates earthly subjects with the extraterrestrial entities. With such paintings that explore cosmology, Ojo injects more of conservative tones, in pseudo-monochrome. Buried deep inside such paintings are codes that take much of intellectualism to interpret her expressionist choice.

With her choice of consistency in abstraction contents, Ojo sometimes attempts to infuse common social issues into visual culture to soften her themes. Such examples, she brings in sharing personal thoughts and experience of life's journey on the canvas as some of her most recent paintings create mirror through which behavioural reflections and shadows can be seen. 

In 'Unraveled Threads' and 'Journey Within', for examples, the paintings' simplified layers of colours come in shades and brightness to explain how emotive strength generate state of confusion. Yes, the layers of colours are actually chaotic with no define direction. But the state of chaos generated from the artist's brushstrokes represents everyone's struggle against frustration, especially when life falls short of expectation at a given situation.

It's surprising why the paintings are not titled as twin in 'I & II', given the much identical textures. But for the purpose of critique clarity, it's better to separate the works as the artist wishes. In that context, every brushstroke of Ojo in 'Unraveled Threads' represents a journey through the path of respite. As much as the painting coalesces aesthetics and suspense, the beauty of appreciating its visual narrative comes in the effect of illusory optical perception radiated. The artist further captures her thoughts, saying that each of her stroke attempts to break free from bottled worries, "into a visual narrative."

 Every art has its critical or commercial value, and perhaps in some situations, multiple appreciation interests of whoever posseses such piece. Among such many values and interests is the mental or therapeutic effect that a piece of art radiates. And when an artist makes bold and asserts that a piece of art transmits healing effect, the evidence of doubt lies in the experience being shared. "This piece becomes a therapeutic release, inviting viewers to connect with the raw emotions that lie beneath the surface, ultimately turning chaos into a compelling story of resilience and hope," Ojo asserts her thoughts.

The other twin-like or identical painting, 'Journey Within'  takes so much from the same style in colour layers as 'Unraveled Threads', such that it might present repetitive traps to critique. Perhaps, the artist's thoughts on the painting offers a window to ventilate critical perspective, especially when the themes are also identical. Ojo explains that it "is a reflective exploration of the inner self, capturing the complexities of personal growth and self-discovery."

 For an artist who kick-started her studio career in Nigeria, Ojo's current base in Middlesbrough, UK seemed to have added new shades of colours to her canvas, within the cultural diversity context. And on strengthening her training her Graphic Design background Ojo has added graduate degree from Teesside University, in 2024. Also, she boosted her exhibition profile with Curator Space and the Big Art Festival in Stockton.

-Tajudeen Sowole is a Lagos-based writer on The Arts.