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Oluseye Ogunlesi

Nigerian-Canadian, born England, 1986

Oluseye Ogunlesi. Photo: Joshua C. Rille.

Oluseye Ogunlesi is a Nigerian Canadian artist (born England, 1986). Using diasporic debris—a term he coined to describe the artifacts, discarded materials, and found objects he collects from his travels across the Atlantic—he explores Black being across multiple themes. These transformational objects are recast into sculpture, installation, performance, and photography, and their explorations invoke Ogunlesi's personal narratives and travels within a broader examination of Black Diasporic identities and cultures, migration, myth, and spiritual traditions.

Ogunlesi has a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and a Masters of Science in Entrepreneurship from Bayes Business School, University of London, UK. He has exhibited at the Albright-Knox in Buffalo, New York (2022); and Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (2021); the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston (2021); and Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2015), all in Canada.