NIGERIAN PORTRAIT ARTISTTHEOPHILUS DANJUMA MADAKI

“My work is honest and audacious.
I want to show the origin and beauty of our future
through the faces of today.” — Theophilus Danjuma Madaki

Theophilus Danjuma Madaki is a Nigerian artist working primarily in realism and portraiture. Specifically, his figures are rendered in oil, while most backgrounds are completed in acrylic.

In addition, he occasionally incorporates African mathematics and textile patterns into the background of his work as a nod to heritage and structure. According to Theophilus Danjuma Madaki, he describes his work as honest and audacious. Ultimately, his aim is to engage audiences with the origin and beauty of the Black future.

Furthermore, through a multimedia approach of oil, acrylic, and African fabrics on one canvas, Theophilus Madaki takes the portrait beyond the intimate to the communal. As a result, the work becomes a living record of emotion, memory, identity, and our shared collective experience.

Moreover, each one of Madaki’s portraits is built in the subtlety of colour, form, and expression. In this way, every painting weaves a narrative individually rooted in vulnerability, resilience, hope, and identity.

Biography
Born in 1987 in Kaduna, Nigeria.
Studied Fine Art at Ahmadu Bello University and graduated in 2014.
Currently a full-time studio artist based in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Selected Focus
Medium: Oil on canvas, Acrylic, Mixed Media, African Textiles
Themes: Identity, Memory, Community, Resilience, Black Futurity
Notable Body of Work: Portrait of Us

Past Exhibitions
Pigmented : Celebrating Africa’s contribution to the Global Art Market – ColormeAfrica art gallery October 2025
Tapestry of African Expression (Online Exhibition) Taag Gallery – July 2025
Intersectionality in Art – Odama Art Gallery – June 2025
The Root – Solo Show – Image Box Studio, Ibadan, March 2021.

Magic of the Rose (II)

Magic of the Rose (II)