Art x Adẹ

Medium: Acrylic on Wood Size: 36" x 24" Year: 2026 Artist: Matthew Medupin This painting captures a solemn procession beneath a troubled sunset sky with figures bound together, walking into an uncertain and imposed fate. Their identities are rendered in silhouette, not to diminish them, but to reflect the cruel erasure that slavery imposed upon countless African lives. The diagonal movement of the figures suggests inevitability of a forced journey with no choice of direction. The chains, delicately highlighted against dark forms, symbolise both physical bondage and the collective weight of history carried across generations. The sunset, often a symbol of transition and hope in my work, is here subdued and distant. Its fading light contrasts sharply with the darkness of human injustice, reminding us that beauty in nature does not always mirror justice in humanity. This piece does not attempt to dramatise suffering. Instead, it bears quiet testament to endur...

In this abstract landscape, a radiant angel breaks through a turbulent sky and descends toward the earth below. Rendered in thick, luminous white impasto, the heavenly figure dominates the composition, its wings outstretched in both authority and compassion. The textured paint gives the angel a sculptural presence, as though emerging from light itself. Beneath this divine visitation, shadowed figures move across rolling hills and open terrain. Their dark silhouettes contrast sharply with the brilliance above, suggesting humanity in journey. The sky churns with layered blues, greens, and earth tones, reflecting the tension of the human condition. Yet the descending messenger signals intervention, protection, and hope. Heaven is not distant; it is drawing near. This work explores the sacred meeting point between the spiritual and the earthly.This is a reminder that even in uncertainty, divine presence hovers over the landscape of life.

One of my favourite acronyms is TEAM — Together Everyone Achieves More. A powerful example of this in action is my ongoing art project: a master collage made up of over 35 individually painted, sunset-themed abstract pieces, all stitched together onto a five-square-metre linen fabric. The painting itself was the easy part. The real challenge was the stitching. I had never done any stitching before, so this was unfamiliar territory. That was when I needed help. Grace’s experience became invaluable. She patiently taught me the process. At first, it was awkward — I kept pricking my fingers with the needle, and as I am still struggling with my vision due recent cataract surgeries in both eyes, even threading the needle was no small task. But with Grace in the driving seat, what seemed daunting became doable. What felt slow and frustrating suddenly moved with rhythm and speed. That is the beauty of TEAM. Where one person struggles, another strengthens. Where one hesitates, another gui...

Bridge Over Troubled Water is a meditation on endurance, passage, and the quiet resolve required to move through uncertainty. In this work, the water below is deliberately restless—layered with intense reds, broken whites, and unsettled movement, symbolising struggle, memory, and the turbulence that often accompanies lived experience. The bridge stands as a slender but determined presence across this instability. It does not calm the water beneath it, nor does it attempt to dominate the scene. Instead, it exists as a necessary crossing, an act of continuation. For me, the bridge represents the moments in life when one must keep moving forward, not because conditions are favourable, but because standing still is not an option. The sunset light and its narrow vertical reflection are restrained rather than celebratory. They suggest not comfort or resolution, but persistence, a fragile yet deliberate line cutting through unrest. This is not hope in its idealised form, but endur...

This painting reflects an impressionistic meditation on slavery as a journey, physical, emotional, and spiritual set beneath a burning African sunset.  The figures are rendered as silhouettes, stripped of identity and detail, not to diminish them, but to allow them to stand for countless unnamed lives forced into motion. The sunset dominates the composition, glowing with beauty and cruelty at once. It marks transition rather than rest: the end of freedom, the beginning of suffering, and the slow erasure of certainty. Chains are suggested rather than described, echoing both physical bondage and the invisible weight carried across generations. The road stretches forward without promise or conclusion. In this work, the artist does not seek to narrate history, but to evoke memory and to invite the viewer to walk quietly behind those who were made to journey into the unknown, carrying dignity even as everything else was taken.

  I came across a photograph of a beautiful sunset shared by a member of a neighbourhood platform and sought permission to create an impressionistic interpretation of it. This is the result of that process. While painting, an old song I first heard in 1972 resurfaced in my mind, carrying me back to my early years in the city of Lagos. The song, When the Sun Goes Down by Charles Brown, unexpectedly became the emotional soundtrack to the work. As the sun descended on the canvas, memories of youth, place, and passing time quietly unfolded—proof that a single image can bridge decades, cities, and emotions.