Colonial penetration by Olamilekan Okunade
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 42 x 48 in
Year: 2024
Price: $4500.00 USD
Status: available
Colonial penetration is an embodiment of the vulnerability of women as an allegory for harsh societal realities. Their eyes tell the story of endurance, sorrow, pretence, and quiet defiance. The coloniser is at rest after his deeds, oblivious to the emotional turmoil left in the wake of his actions. The painting invites viewers to contemplate the enduring impact of exploitation on individuals and cultures, encouraging empathy and a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding such historical narratives.
Why collect this work?
A rigid patchwork of colour binds bodies, fruit and military imagery into one compressed field, making colonial power appear not distant or abstract but enacted through intimate access, service and display.
- The artist’s profile identifies women’s social experience as a central concern in Okunade’s practice. Here, that focus supports the painting’s gendered account of colonial domination without fixing each figure to a single narrative role.
- A pale, nude man occupies the centre while women touch, flank and serve him; above, a decorated uniformed figure repeats his frontal authority. Several women look sideways or beyond him, complicating any reading of the scene as consent or celebration.
- Documented as acrylic on canvas, the painting uses sharply separated, mostly opaque blocks. Their mosaic-like structure fractures skin and setting alike, yet strong outlines preserve the bodies as legible actors within the crowded composition.
- The work provides a concrete basis for examining how historical violence is pictured through domestic gestures and unequal bodily exposure, rather than through battle scenes alone.
About the Artist
Olamilekan Okunade
Olamilekan Okunade is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: painting. Based in Nigeria, NG.
Nationality: Nigerian
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