Artist
Timi Kakandar
“I love blue and I love red”
Timi Kakandar (born 1973) started his artistic career immediately after graduating from the University of Port Harcourt in 1999.
His paintings, drawings, and collages illustrate how the challenges, pleasures, and social and political dilemmas of living and working in Africa inspire his obsession with the human body. His art radiates a great intensity of vivid, unrefined hues and expressive lines that provide them with a presence that forcefully engages the viewer. Timi’s composition of human figures is dexterous, and his use of vibrant colours is reminiscent of Fauvism. Timi Kakandar is one of the most prolific modern artists in Nigeria, having a significant fan following in both Nigeria and overseas.
Timi thinks both abstractly and concretely. Timi transforms his canvasses into what I call a beautiful colour “labyrinth” , which are mostly applied with the palette knife. His seaters are camouflaged and drenched in a myraid of harmonious vivid and vibrant colours almost singing a melody into your eyes on a plain background of white yet the artist did mention that blue is his favorite colour.
This in turn prepares the figure in the centre to assume total control as the only topic of attention, with no competing elements in the background.
Timi finishes his paintings with beautiful highlights which gives his works a push of depth a lighting approach that darkens the depths and highlights the curves. In the end, we are often left to see uniqueness and majesty in its purest form. Timi’s portraits are profound because he attempts to excavate an emotion, passion, or experience via his vibrant depictions of Black people. He’s one of the most prolific modern artists in Nigeria, having a significant fan following in both Nigeria and overseas.
Hope
Acrylic painting on Canvas
40.64 w x 91.44 h cm (2020)
A gift of love and Peace
Oil on Canvas
90.6 w x 32 h cm (2018)
Mindscape