Komorebi by Olumide Ajayi
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Ink and Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 92 x 92 cm
Year: 2025
Price: $1850.00 USD
Status: available
There are days I find myself looking back at moments that live quietly in memory, days filled with laughter, noise, and the warmth of people I once stood beside. I painted this from that ache: the kind that doesn't hurt loudly but lingers softly, like a shadow that refuses to fade. Each figure here carries a fragment of me, the boy who wanted to belong, the one who stayed quiet, and the one who smiled to hide the weight he carried. I remember how we'd stand together, not saying much, yet everything felt understood. When I look at this painting, I realize how time has scattered us, distance crept in, and how silence replaced our shared jokes. But there's still light: even in the in-between. I painted Komorebi as a way of holding on: not to people, but to the feeling of what it meant to be seen, to belong, even for a moment. Sometimes, I look at this painting and whisper to myself, "I still remember." It's about belonging, distance, and the bittersweet light that memory leaves behind.
Why collect this work?
Three front-facing figures stand apart against a densely marked turquoise field. By minimizing facial detail while differentiating each person through clothing, Komorebi treats remembrance as an accumulation of visual fragments rather than a precise likeness.
- Ajayi states that his paintings address less obvious feelings and time’s continual movement. In this work, that intention is legible in the tension between the trio’s shared placement and their visual separation.
- The photograph shows the figures close together but not touching. Black circles, branching forms, palms, repeated dots and handwritten phrases disperse attention across the square surface, preventing the group from becoming its sole focus.
- Catalogued as ink and acrylic on canvas, the pairing permits broad opaque colour alongside finer outlines and notation. Here, solid garments and bodies contrast with a background built from loops, strokes and words.
- In a collection or display focused on group portraiture, this painting provides a concrete study of memory without detailed resemblance. The visible word “remember” makes recollection part of the image’s structure as well as its stated subject.
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.
