ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHY

Fatai Kelani is an emerging Nigerian artist.

He was born and bred in Mushin, a commercial area in Lagos. At the age of six, he

discovered his passion for drawing and has since been working hard to create a niche

for himself. After his apprenticeship under two Lagos-based artists, Damilola Opedun

and Muyiwa Williams, he was admitted into the prestigious Yaba College of Technology,

Yaba, Lagos to study art and design in 2014. He eventually graduated from the tertiary

institution in 2019 with a Higher National Diploma in painting.

Now involved in a full-time studio practice, Kelani draws his inspiration and creativity

from nature and his environment, and inevitably uses them as metaphors in his

paintings. A versatile impressionist and realist, his artistic impressions take on form

according to the story conjured in his mind. He is, meanwhile, very prolific in oil, acrylic,

pastel, water colour, and charcoal mediums.

Kelani, whose works are greatly admired by locally-based renowned art connoisseurs

and collectors, has built a diverse portfolio of commissioned pieces, pastel paintings,

water colour, oil paintings, charcoal drawings, acrylic paintings, and mixed media works,

which attest to the vibrancy of the Lagos art scene.