Catharsis by Olumide Ajayi
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Ink and Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 36 x 36 in
Year: 2025
Price: $1650.00 USD
Status: available
I painted this piece to finally let go of what I couldn't hold onto, and most of all, to heal. It was the painting that I completed within the shortest amount of time. I hope that this painting inspires you to let go of the pain finally, hurts, and brings you the same sense of healing and release that it gave me. "Catharsis" is the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions. At a time of loss, there’s nothing easier than pity and nothing more difficult than the truth, as there are no easy answers to grief.
Why collect this work?
A frontal, headphone-wearing figure anchors a crowded field of fragments, turning private listening into a structure for holding grief without resolving it.
- Ajayi states that his paintings address complex, less obvious feelings through the body. Here, the simplified face functions less as a likeness than as a container for competing thoughts and memories.
- In the photograph, a red headphone cable loops around the central figure while spirals, dotted passages, small figures and handwritten phrases press inward. “No easy answers to grief” counters the title’s promise of release.
- The documented ink and acrylic on canvas permit two distinct registers: drawn outlines and writing remain legible against broader, layered strokes across the torso. This contrast separates articulated thought from less defined feeling.
- Dated 2025 and catalogued at 36 by 36 inches, Catharsis is a focused case study in how contemporary portraiture can combine text, diagram and figure without reducing grief to a single narrative.
About the Artist
Olumide Ajayi
Olumide Ajayi is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: Painter. Mixed Media. Based in Ibadan, NG.
Nationality: Nigerian
My work seeks to embrace complex feelings, giving them a canvas to breathe, shift, and resonate.
