Oluseye Ogunlesi (b. 1986, London, UK) is a Nigerian Canadian artist.
Using “diasporic debris” — a term used to describe the artifacts collected on his trans-Atlantic travels — Oluseye traces Blackness through its multifaceted migrations and manifestations. These transformational objects are recast into sculpture, performance, and photography; invoking his personal narratives within a broader examination of Black Diasporic identity and African spiritual traditions. Oluseye embraces Blackness as divine, fluid, and unfixed; unbound by time, space, and geographies. His practice blends the ancestral with the contemporary and the physical with the spiritual. Oluseye has exhibited at the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Fransisco (2024), Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto (2024), Southern Guild Gallery, Cape Town (2023), the Gardiner Museum, Toronto (2023), Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo (2022), Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (2021), Agnes Etherington Art Center, Queen’s University, Kingston (2021) and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2015). In 2022, his first public art commission, Black Ark, was installed in Toronto’s Ashbridge’s Bay Park, and in Fall 2024 will embark on a tour of the Maritimes with stops at the Owens Art Gallery and The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
Photo: Josh Rille