Ayọ̀délé — “Joy Has Come Home” by Iyanuoluwa Babalola
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 20 x 30 in
Year: 2026
Price: $800.00 USD
Status: available
In this piece, I explore joy not as something we chase, but as something we return to. Rooted in the cultural memory of Fiditi, known as the Land of Fruits, the figure becomes a living landscape. The fruits are not placed around her; they grow from her symbolizing nourishment, abundance, and the quiet healing that comes from reconnecting with one’s origin. The repeated fruit forms and mango earring extend this idea of identity—what we carry, and what we become. This work is part of an ongoing Oríkì (praise-name) series, where each piece draws from Yoruba names as vessels of memory, identity, and emotional experience. At its core, Ayọ̀délé speaks to the experience of return. The gentle smile reflects a quiet, inward realization a moment where joy is no longer searched for, but rediscovered. In a world shaped by displacement, emotional fatigue, and cultural disconnection, this piece offers a counter-narrative: that joy can always find its way back home softly, like memory, or gradually, like fruit ripening in its season.
Why collect this work?
A tightly cropped figure joins portrait and harvest: fruit spreads across the shoulders, making abundance appear integral to the sitter rather than an accompanying symbol.
- Babalola identifies the painting as part of his Oríkì series, based on Yoruba praise-names, and links its fruit imagery to Fiditi. This stated intention frames the portrait through cultural memory and return.
- In the photograph, sharply bounded blues model the face against a yellow ground. Repeated red fruit, green foliage, pale flowers, and radiating lines give the still pose a concentrated visual rhythm.
- The documented acrylic on canvas supports opaque colour fields, precise contours, and compact highlights. Here, those properties keep face, ground, and densely layered fruit legible despite their intensity.
- The painting is significant as a portrait in which identity appears cultivated rather than simply depicted. The orchard-like garment and mango earring connect bodily presentation with nourishment, place, and inherited memory.
About the Artist
Iyanuoluwa Babalola
Iyanuoluwa Babalola is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: Painting/ Acrylic and on Canvas. Based in Lagos, NG.
Nationality: Nigerian
My art explores healing, identity, cultural memory, and moral consciousness through expressive painting and visual storytelling.
