Olayikanmi Olawale is a Nigerian contemporary expressionist. He studied painting at the Yaba College of Technology Yaba, Lagos. His process can be classified as instinctive and organic, with the energetic and vibrant abstract paintings emerging from his non-judgmental subconscious mind, brought together by feelings trying to find harmony in spontaneity. His expressive style is characterised by dynamic lines, saturated colours and rapid and expressive brushstrokes heavily influenced by Neo Expressionist artists such as Jean Michael Basquiat, George Baselitz and Richard Prince. Through a breadth of marks, Olawale’s process-based work manages to capture the energy at the heart of painting, in a way that feels authentic yet contemporary. An interesting tension exists between the loose, primitive marks and Olawale’s use of poppy block colour and recognisable motifs, which strike a delicate balance between the past and present; order and disorder.As Olawale usually says, “I am the happiest when I can submerge myself into the creative world. A meditative space where time stands still. A place where I find solace and can reflect, explore and connect with my deeper self. My art is always an intuitive process that follows an impulse, embraces the accidental and is often full of surprises. It is my way of exploring the unspoken complexities of humans and life and the relationships with ourselves, others and the world around us.”