Oluwakayode Bankole

Oluwakayode Bankole (BOF) is a Nigerian contemporary visual artist whose practice centers on the human figure reimagined as a vessel of light. Through a distinctive anthropomorphic language in which the head is replaced by a candle, he examines identity, consciousness, spiritual authority, and the fragility of perception.

Working primarily with graphite, charcoal, pastel, colored pencil, and acrylic paint, Oluwakayode constructs psychologically charged compositions defined by disciplined draftsmanship and symbolic restraint. The melting candle functions as both metaphor and mechanism, representing illumination, erosion, sacrifice, knowledge, time, and the cost of visibility. In his work, light is not passive; it consumes, reveals, diminishes, and transforms.

By removing the conventional human face and replacing it with flame, he destabilizes traditional portraiture and challenges assumptions about individuality and power. His figures exist in a state of becoming, burning, fading, or intensifying, confronting the tension between appearance and essence, presence and disappearance.

Oluwakayode’s evolving body of work positions the candle not merely as an object, but as a philosophical structure through which themes of faith, author...

B.A in Christian Religious studies in Redeemers University. (2022)
B in Theology in Rcbc. (2022)

Visual Translations Exhibition
The Core Experiment, CIBN Bankers House, Abuja, Nigeria
22–23 August 2025.

Artist Connect Africa
Nordic Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria
2025.