Afrikanizm | Oni Balogun – Nigerian Visual Artist Blending Identity

"Oni Balogun views his artistic practice as a visual dialogue between structure and spirit. Drawing from a cubist-inspired aesthetic, he explores the complexities of African identity through geometric forms, dynamic lines, and layered abstractions. For him, each artwork is a quiet act of resistance - a reclamation of cultural memory and a reimagining of inherited narratives.

His work exists at the intersection of past and present, where ancestral echoes meet the pulse of contemporary life. He is deeply interested not only in what can be seen, but in what can be felt - the invisible connections between heritage, self-perception, and collective memory.

Through his paintings, Balogun creates spaces where memory becomes geometry, and identity unfolds in colour, form, and movement."

MEET

Oni Balogun

Oni Balogun (b. 1993) is a contemporary Nigerian visual artist based in Lagos, whose work bridges abstraction and semi-abstraction through a distinctive visual language of geometric shapes, rhythmic linework, and textural depth. A graduate of Yaba College of Technology, where he studied art and graphic design, Oni has steadily gained recognition through both local and international exhibitions, including the iDESIGN Art Fair in Lagos (2019) and Ethereal Essence at Curtiss Jacobs Gallery, New York (2024).

Balogun’s practice explores Afrocentric identity, cultural symbolism, and collective memory, reimagined through a contemporary aesthetic that honours both tradition and innovation. His compositions evoke emotional resonance while maintaining a strong sense of structure, using abstraction not as escape but as a tool for rearticulation.

Whether through bold linear arrangements or layered spatial forms, his work prompts reflection on African heritage, urban experience, and the evolving visual language of the diaspora. Oni Balogun continues to shape a practice that is both personal and political, formal and expressive—where identity is not fixed but in perpetual motion.

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