A-ARTs: ‘I Am Just A Boy’ of resistance, combative strokes

'I Am Just a Boy' (oil on canvas, 47x34 inches, dated 2026) by John Okoye.

By Tajudeen Sowole

THE smooth brushings in figurative paintings by John Chukwuemeka Okoye are the immediate attractions, leading to increased interests in his works. In 21st century art from Africa era when most artists of his age, either by choice or circumstances of capacity, blackens figurative and portrait paintings, Okoye brushes through the resilience of realism representation.

Whatever the theme or focus of the paintings, at first glance, seems less relevance as the textures of the works keep a critic’s attention busy, trying to extract masterly strokes from a young artist. From the colour of the subjects’ skins, to details of surrounding objects as well as the hues, shades and lighting techniques of the artist, there is little space to get distracted in appreciating Okoye’s works.

Sometimes, an artist is blessed with great skills of whatever choice of medium or genre, but lacks thematic depth that’s rich enough to engage viewers. For Okoye, he looks like an artist whose rich texture in hyperrealism painting is a match with his thematic focus. The artist’s sympathy for the burden and challenge that society places on young people of his gender and age brackets strengthens his depth of intellectual energy.

From as little as under 10-year-old, boys grow up with the mentality of ‘superman’ who should not be seen to make mistake. Okoye’s body of work he aptly titled ‘I Am Just A Boy’ confronts the systemic harassment of teenage boys who are constantly denied the right to enjoy their early youth years. Okoye’s series raises question on when and how to draw a line between raising a future responsible man and avoid building wild teenagers, into the next generations.

In his combative and resistance themes, Okoye’s defence of ‘I Am Just A Boy’ series captures a young male of teenage whose adventure to self-discovery include what can be described as two sides to a coin. In ‘I Am Just A Boy’ VII and III, the paintings expose a teenager who seems to engage in smoking as part of self-discovery. In broad context, the seemingly posture of a smoker in the two series may just be metaphorical as the cigarette represents every other part of life that a teenage person wants to experiment with on the journey towards self-discovery.

Perhaps, stressing how his paintings challenge tradition, Okoye’s I Am Just A Boy VI displays the subject with a stick of cigarette between the fingers of his right hand, but something inspiring on the left. Irrespective of whatever anyone thinks about a young person’s smoking character, something curious steps into the conversation when the same subject’s other hand holds a novel ‘A Man Who Is Not A Man’ by South African author, Thando Mgqolozana. Okoye’s theme sharing similar thoughts with the novel suggests that many young boys have been betrayed and led astray by the same society that should be guiding them.

Either in oil or gouache painting, realism, and by extension hyperrealism, is one of the most critically engaged area of art. While most artists of hyperrealism genre attempt to reproduce photography on canvas through paintings, the advantage of being an artist, and not a machine, is less taken into consideration. In Okoye’s I Am Just a Boy series, the artist’s attempt to details, including reproducing the shades and lights takes something away from the essence of art. From modernists era to contemporary period, the conversation that Fine Art should be actually artistic, and not an imitation of photography is always recurring,

By its nature, art, especially creating figurative paintings, deserves to retain its natural content, within the context of conceptuality. For realism and its hyperrealism cousin, the contents are better appreciated when the artist brushes the paintings in surreal concept. Surreal approach to representational shields the artist from the blackmail of ‘merely reproducing’ figurative contents or replicating photography.

Perhaps, a surreal style to Okoye's concept of I Am Just a Boy would have made a lot difference in preserving the uniqueness of art.