In her portrayal of the female body, Mobolaji Ogunrosoye has perfected her manipulation of photography and collage. Through her process of distorting the photographs of her subjects, the Nigerian conceptual artist investigates her ideas of perception. By using her medium to address themes of selfhood and body image, she investigates the impact of societal influences on personal identity as they relate to African women.
Ogunrosoye’s debut at this year’s edition of the 1-54 New York art fair was met with glowing remarks as the exhibited works from her “Portraits” series were one of the highlights of the fair. The series is an ongoing project which began in 2021. She is documenting personal identity and expression in her portraitures using found and captured photographs of women, and archival materials as her chosen medium for the project.
“Her practice revolves around ideation and exploring the different ways in which images of the female body may be distorted In the Portraits series, Ogunrosoye creates multi-layer collages, incorporating a process of burning and cutting to create depth in revealing underlying layers of images, ” kó gallery writes in their artist statement for 1-54.
The artist references the fluidity and duality of her subjects in her investigations of the female form. With every intricate layering of cut-out photographs, Mobolaji Ogunrosoye reveals the new.
Iyanuoluwa Adenle is a Nigerian art writer, essayist, and poet based in Lagos. She is currently the head writer at Omenai. Adenle has contributed to a number of art publications, including Tender Photo, Art News Africa, Pavillon 54, and Omenai.
