It takes creative professional in the architecture field to expand the conversation about the thin line between art and design as works of artist, Oluwasemilore Stephen Ogunsanya attempt to throw more light on the subject.
The artist whose coinage identity ‘Stef’, from his middle name Stephen, simplifies his art of digital painting. He replaces real oil or acrylic creation of images with manipulated electronic device. Stef’s art of digital painting brings creative skills into the complexity of blurring the line between art and design.
In the last six months to one year, Stef’s art has been on display at different group exhibitions and a fair across Nigeria and the UK, exposing the artist’s creative energy. However, mastery or potential quality of being a master is not measured by the number of exhibitions within a short period. Currently, Stef’s work is showing in a group exhibition titled Resilience, at Hartlepool Gallery, in the U.K. His work at the exhibition, he titles I Touched Your Grace, typically exposes him as a designer, even as he attempts to diffuse the art and design line in the piece.
As much as Stef’s I Touched Your Grace made it to a group exhibition, there is something about the piece that makes it a bit unconvincing, depending a viewer’s taste for fine art. What other theme or style of painting does Stef display elsewhere that could be of interest to engage one’s critical view? Here is one of such pieces, a 2023 dated painting he titles I Clearly Have Divided Attention, in which the artist releases his sense of abstract expressionism.
With geometric characteristics, Stef’s I Clearly Have A Divided Attention offers the artist a window, perhaps unintentionally, to draw more focus on the disappearing line between art and design. While the piece gives Stef window to share his personal thoughts on handling unavoidable conflicts of interests, it also presents abstract images that could pass for illustrations from the desk of a designer.
The work explores the idea of divided attention, reflecting his dual personality as an artist and individual navigating multiple challenges, responsibilities, and creative directions. The geometric forms and fragmented images seem to communicate the feeling of being mentally stretched, at different times and spaces. The abstract approach allows these emotions to be represented visually, turning an internal experience into a layered and expressive composition. Searching for the heavy tone of design in Stef’s art reveals the artist’s background of architecture. In fact, his bio says he holds MA in Design, clearly adding to the obvious texture of his works that attempt to create a balance between art and design.
His bio further says that Stef (b. 1998) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice seeks to create enduring, almost ‘immortalised’ expressions of identity and emotion. His distinctive visual language is characterised by vibrant, dynamic compositions that often border on abstraction, drawing viewers into immersive fields of colour and form.
Stef’s architecture background makes his practice informed by both spatial thinking and experimental design methodologies. Such foundation allows him to move fluidly between disciplines, translating ideas of structure, space, and identity into both two-dimensional artworks and three-dimensional design objects.
His exhibitions resume include what is listed as multiple NFT.NYC features in New York, the group exhibition Roots and Routes at The Carre Gallery in Sleaford, the +234 Art Fair by Soto Gallery in Lagos, Nigeria, a presentation with The Auxiliary in Middlesbrough, and Resilience at Hartlepool Gallery, Hartlepool, among others.
Beaming into the future, Stef’s practice aims to expand into larger-scale immersive works and interdisciplinary collaborations, further exploring how identity can be translated across physical, digital, and spatial environments. His long-term ambition is to develop a globally recognised practice that bridges contemporary art, design, and experimental visual storytelling.