Abe Odedina

Ed Cross Fine Art, London

Acquired from the above by the present owner

London, Copeland Gallery, Abe Odedina - Birds of Paradise, April - May 2019

Love Play (2023) encapsulates the artist’s celebrated ability to merge allegory, storytelling, and bold visual clarity, drawing strongly on West African narrative painting traditions while resonating with a global contemporary sensibility. This compelling composition demonstrates Odedina’s gift for economy of form, luminous colour, and playful, yet profound, symbolism.

In Love Play, Odedina conjures a tableau that is at once intimate and universal. The work centres on two figures locked in an ambiguous, almost theatrical embrace, their interaction charged with both tenderness and suspense. The panel’s surface is alive with a rich yet restrained palette, typical of Odedina’s distinctive visual language, while the crisp outlines and flattened forms evoke both the sign-painting traditions of Nigeria and the canons of folk and devotional art. This aesthetic, far from naïve, is purposeful—inviting the viewer into a layered meditation on human connection, desire, and vulnerability.

Love, in Odedina’s world, is both a game and a source of revelation. The artist is recognised for his ability to transform personal themes into shared mythologies, and in this painting he explores the shifting roles of actor and spectator, the stage of romance providing a space for both drama and sincerity. The enigmatic quality of the scene resists easy interpretation, allowing viewers to project their own stories and emotions onto the composition.

Odedina’s works are increasingly sought-after in major international collections for their daring blend of conceptual wit and emotional directness. Love Play invites contemporary collectors to engage with an artist committed to renewing the power of visual storytelling, where tradition and innovation unfurl side by side in every brushstroke.