Silas Adelanke Adeoye was born in Osun State, the South-Western part of Nigeria, in 1962. He took to fine art early, experimenting with various ideas and coming up with innovative techniques before even starting his primary education. He largely developed as an artist by himself, later joining a group of young, prominent artists at the National Museum, Lagos. His works represent a continuation in the tradition of Yoruba Art, recognizable by his choice of pigment to suit each motif. Visual art, in the historic Yoruba setting, was generally restricted to the courts of the kings and chiefs, and to religious houses. Silas believes that it is the responsibility of the modern artist to extend the enjoyment of this very unique form of expression to a far broader audience in a manner that music and poetry, are today. Adeoye uses the technique of pointillism exclusively in his work, a technique that is utilized by few contemporary artists.
He has participated in numerous exhibitions and fine art auctions in Nigeria and internationally, his work can be found in selected collections worldwide.
What is characteristic of Silas’ works is the precision and mastery and decorative elegance, which reflect in the artist’s distinction of patience, aesthetic sense, originality and sensitivity.
Under the bright sun, art and culture flourish in Africa. Africans focused their artistic styles on different images of human, animals, plant life and natural designs. Yoruba art is a symbolic art – symbols that have deep meanings. The Yoruba traditional artist mostly does not pay attention to the issue of the fall of light and shadow, because his art is not so much of a form as it attempts to create and construct something relating to symbolism and expression in human.
It is an art of simplicity and abstraction, the African mask is one of the most important features of this art. Yoruba art represents the beauty of women in their clothing and accessories, and we cannot forget that African art had a great influence on modern and contemporary art. Many of the most important artists had been influenced by African Art, such as Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, Georges Braque and Van Gogh. Also, the surrealism and cubism movements.
The follower of the works of the Nigerian artist, Silas Adelanke Adeoye, finds him or herself in the face of paintings that are very creative, wonderful and distinguished. The artist was directly influenced by the surrounding environment. He expresses the daily life and human interaction with life’s appearances. What is characteristic of Silas’ works is the precision and mastery and decorative elegance, which reflect in the artist’s distinction of patience, aesthetic sense, originality and sensitivity. Adeoye has merged the human elements with symbols which carry meaning and concepts, composed of lines and effects of various textures, dividing the painting with the utmost precision and skill, using the warm colors of the bright sun and the cold colors inspired by water and sky.
The special world of the Nigerian artist Silas Adelanke Adeoye sometimes comes in the form of a puzzle, where its parts complement each other in an aesthetic structure, in which the symbolic shapes with colors discuss the whole picture, revealing its meanings and conceptions. It confirms that African art throughout the twentieth century has penetrated deep in the modernity of the world, where it has become one of the most powerful visual aesthetics in contemporary times, and as for the African literature and cinema, and the music with which the rhythms of the African continent rose, African artistic energies have emerged in keeping with the contemporary sensitivity of its knowledge and literature without shedding its skin. It underscores the awareness of African artists of the value of their heritage and self-sustaining civilization, which enables them to open up to one another and thus to engage seamlessly in the making of the magic of Universe Art, in which geographical boundaries are eroded.