Portrait of Yekini Yeeku, 2025
Adewale Kolawole John is a Nigerian painter and draftsman whose work explores the rela-tionship between music, memory and portraiture. Trained in Painting and Decoration at the Government Technical College, Ibadan, he has developed a distinctive visual language that translates the sonic textures of Yoruba musical traditions into gesture, rhythm and colour.
Working primarily in oil and acrylic on paper and canvas, John depicts traditional Yoruba musicians and their patrons adorned in gold jewellery, wearing ankara, aso oke and damask fabrics. His compositions balance surface pattern and emotional depth, evoking the silent rhythm that connects sound and spirit.
John’s studio practice began in Ibadan, where he transformed an ordinary streetside studio into a vibrant site of painting and community engagement. The studio is a place of refuge and instruction for his contemporaries and proteges. His ongoing series pays homage to Yoruba musical heritage and its role in shaping Nigeria’s cultural identity. In 2025, he was awarded a month-long residency at the Guest Artists Space Foundation (G.A.S.) Lagos, during which he produced new works and conducted research across archives, record stores, and cultural sites such as the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art, and the John Randle Centre for Yoruba Art and History.
John’s work has been exhibited in Lagos, Marrakech, London, and Houston and is held in private collections in Nigeria, Europe, and the United States.