Looking beyond the beauty, power and influence of women – The Nation Newspaper
November 3, 2025 by Ozolua Uhakheme, Assistant Editor (Arts)
Looking beyond the beauty, power and influence of women
There can be no limit to the exploration of the fundamental values of visual art for the benefit of mankind. Beyond providing a vital outlet for conveying complex emotions and ideas when words are insufficient, it also bridges cultural divides to promote inclusivity. These are some of the critical values of visual art that form the themes of current collection of paintings by Mr. Sunday Oluwaseyifunmi Dabo, Nigeria-born digital artist, pharmacist and public health practitioner based in the UK
His artworks are a convergence of his many parts- science, culture, storytelling, and a deep love for people and community. Through these bold and expressive digital pieces, he explores themes that matter to him in science, identity, culture, resilience, and the everyday beauty of African life
In his series, Omoge (1) and Omoge (II), Dabo celebrates the beauty, power and influence of women in society, particularly in Africa. Ọmọge I portrays a powerful African woman with rich dark purple-black skin that gloriously honours melanin and gives her a regal, mysterious presence. Her face bears three traditional tribal marks, symbolising heritage and identity. She wears intricately braided hair adorned with colorful beads, along with vibrant green and red jewelry earrings, bracelets, and waist beads representing femininity, wealth, and womanhood. A traditional raffia grass skirt flows around her, evoking ceremonial dance and African rituals. Captured in an elegant, graceful pose mid-movement, she radiates confidence and pride. The textured green background creates an earthy, spiritual atmosphere, making her appear deeply connected to nature and her ancestry. Through bold dark tones and luminous details, the piece beautifully blends cultural symbolism with artistic grace.
Similarly, in Ọmọge II, Dabo captures the Black female experience with tenderness and strength the courage it takes to be yourself, the risk of breaking away from tradition, and the unshakable beauty of staying true to who you are. It invites the viewer to think about the complexity of cultural identity, and just how vital and necessary self-expression really is
Growing up in a place rich with tradition and simplicity, he carries those memories into his art, blending them with my experiences in healthcare and education. “Art, for me, is both a reflection and a form of healing. It is how I tell stories of my own and those of others especially the ones that often go unheard. With every piece, I do celebrate African heritage, highlight untold stories, and start conversations around healing, pride, and self-awareness because our stories deserve to be heard, seen, felt, and remembered,” he says of his art.
Another series, Cortsol (I); The Invisible Weight, Intimate Mark, the artist interrogates the powerful and complex nature of human being and how he copes with the multiple stress and overcome them. The artwork shows a hand, calm and steady, but that same hand hides the person’s eyes, symbolising how people sometimes withdraws when the world feels like too much. At the same time, the marks of stress on the hand remind us that we create and carry these feelings ourselves. Against this quiet hiding, there’s a bold, almost rebellious gesture, standing out beside delicate butterflies like a delicate dance between the weight we carry inside, our moments of raw vulnerability, and the fragile hope that things can get better. It’s a deep, thoughtful look at the invisible struggles we all face, where even in tough times, small sparks of resistance and beauty shine through.
In Cortisol (II): Blues of Sorrow; the piece draws viewers deep into the emotional heart of psychological struggle. Fiery, heat map-colored hands press against the figure’s head presents an image that captures the feeling of being mentally overwhelmed. It’s not just outside forces bearing down, but inner ones too, as if the pressure is self-generated, burning from within. Tears trace paths down the face, mapping a raw and personal landscape of pain. In this moment, cortisol the body’s stress hormone becomes something you can see and feel: a burden that weighs heavy and hurts deeply. The work doesn’t flinch from showing how real and consuming internal distress can be. It reminds us that sometimes, the fiercest storms happen inside us, and often, we are both the bearer and source of that storm. It explores the heavy feeling of being human yet feeling like an alien of not belonging in one’s own body or in the world around them. It speaks honestly to body dysmorphia, estrangement, and the aching loneliness of living behind invisible veils of disconnection. In Veils of Becoming, the piece becomes a compassionate reflection on the struggle to feel at home in oneself, and the quiet courage it takes to keep moving toward wholeness. But, for EWA, which is set against a rich emerald background with subtle floral patterns, gently lifts the veils between past and present. Through her dignified presence, the artwork speaks of ancestral memory, feminine resilience, and the beautiful unfolding of identity within the Bantu journey of transformation-a serene, yet powerful meditation on heritage.
Dabo uses Untitled to highlight how one can resist fixed meaning and embrace openness, thus a viewer is invited to engage with the art in a personal way, interpreting and reinterpreting without being guided toward one “correct” narrative. It is less about what the works are called, and more about how they are experienced. In Unbound, the artist deliberately makes the painting to speak of the individual’s journey of self-exploration, the courageous step beyond familiar shores, the lifting of inner veils, and the liberating moment of choosing one’s own path. It is a gentle yet powerful celebration of becoming, freedom, and the endless horizon of personal discovery. This also mirrors the travails of many immigrants across borders, which also shares same thematic interest like Sanctified Abomination, a striking and unsettling portrait of fragmented identity. It depicts a half-Frankenstein, half-skeleton figure that stares outward, one side vibrant green and stitched, the other a bare skull with glowing red eyes. A glowing halo hovers above its head while it wears a crisp white lab coat marked with stitches and the words “I’m a doctor.” Set against a turbulent blood-red background, the piece powerfully captures the messy reality of masking and unmasking stitching together the monstrous, the polished, and the broken parts of ourselves to fit society’s ideals. Through its raw contradictions, Sanctified Abomination speaks of the many versions we carry: the ones we proudly show and the ones we still struggle to accept. It invites viewers to sit with the discomfort of becoming imperfect, stitched, yet undeniably whole.
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