ITALIAN Reward for a Creative Genius

A contemporary Nigerian artiste, Olumuyiwa Afolabi Olusola, recently did Nigeria proud when he won bronze at the the World Painting Awards  the Premio Di Pittura Caterina De’ Medici, an exceptional Award for excellence in painting, which included a cash prize of 1500 Euros. The competition was held in Florence, Italy, and had notable personalities like Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka in attendance.  Olumuyiwa emerged as one of the top three artistes, out of 129 contestants that were drawn from various parts of the world such as U.S, Lithuania, Albania, Germany etc for the World Painting Awards.

 Just before that, Afolabi had won the ARESUVA logo creation competition, held in Abuja, Nigeria last year, the prize of which was presented to him at a gala night organized in his honour.

Speaking to M2 recently, Afolabi was full of thanks to God for these achievements. According to him, “the awards underscore the abundant talents that are prevalent in Nigeria.”

Afolabi, who doubles as a painter & brand custodian, has worked with reputable advertising agencies and brands such as Grant, LTC/JWT, Close-Up, Fanta Blackcurrant, Cadbury Corporate Portfolio, Habib Bank, Chartered Bank, Guinness FES/Corporate, WAMCO, Pilsner Beer, among others.  After acquiring branding experience that has spanned over two decades, he decided to setup BRANDSRTAT & ID, which he jointly manages with a partner on his future plans, Afolabi says he will engage himself in providing unparalleled design solution for many brands and stage several exhibitions that will promote arts and business. The artiste is an alumnus of Yaba College of Technology, where he graduated with Higher National Diploma in Painting, has built up a formidable corpus of paintings and participated in over twenty five group exhibition in Nigeria, China, South Africa and Europe.