The United Kingdom-based British-Nigerian artist Dr Ade Ogundimu will never forget the day his father took him to meet Professor Yusuf Grillo at Yaba College of Technology. It was the day a conversation about his future became an encounter with one of Nigeria’s most celebrated art teachers. His father had asked what he intended to do with his life, and when Ade said he wanted to become an artist, the response was not quite what he expected. Before long, his father had taken him to meet Grillo. What happened in that office would remain with him throughout his artistic journey.

Words Ireho Aito | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Photographs and artworks courtesy Dr Ade Ogundimu

The story came back into focus during our recent conversation with Ogundimu, who graced the cover of iBAND Magazine in an exclusive interview titled The Artist with a Postcolonial Vision: The Doctor of Art on Life, Identity and Empire. Beyond his qualifications, exhibitions and years of artistic practice in Britain, there is a personal history behind the artist, one that begins with a father who wanted his son to understand what it meant to choose art as a profession.

Now participating in Lineage of Masters II at the Yusuf Grillo Museum in Ikeja, Lagos, Ade Ogundimu has returned, through his work, to honour a teacher whose lessons have stayed with him for decades.

The exhibition opened on Sunday, 25 October 2026, in what proved to be a memorable gathering of artists, scholars, friends and admirers of Professor Yusuf Grillo. The roll call of masters and distinguished figures in Nigerian contemporary art made the opening an important occasion. Among those who shared their memories and reflections was Professor Bruce Onobrakpeya, Grillo’s friend and contemporary, an internationally acclaimed artist and UNESCO-recognised Living Human Treasure.

The stories shared at the opening brought Grillo closer to the audience, not simply as a celebrated modernist but as a friend, teacher, colleague and mentor whose influence extended across generations. Each recollection added another piece to the history of a man whose contribution to Nigerian art continues to be recognised five years after his passing.

Recalling the experience during his recent iBAND Magazine cover interview, Ogundimu described the moment he told his father that he wanted to become an artist. His father’s response was immediate.

“My father eyed me up and down and said to me, ‘You think Art is a child’s play? You think it’s just about messing around with colours?’ He then rattled off names of British artists and Yusuf Grillo and dismissed me from his presence.”

That could have been the end of the conversation. Instead, his father called him later, told him to dress properly, and drove him to Yaba College of Technology. The young man had no idea where they were going.

What happened when they arrived at Grillo’s office would become one of the defining memories of his artistic journey.

Now, nearly six decades into a life that has taken him from Yaba to the United Kingdom, through painting, sculpture, printmaking and installation, Ogundimu returns to the Yusuf Grillo Museum in Ikeja as a participating artist in Lineage of Masters II: Continuity and Contemporary Expression. The exhibition opened on Sunday, 25 October 2026, bringing together established artists from different generations to honour Grillo’s contribution to Nigerian modern art.

For Ogundimu, the occasion carries a meaning beyond participation in another exhibition. It brings him back to the teacher whose name his father invoked when the young man first declared his ambition to become an artist.

When his father brought him to Grillo, he introduced him with a straightforward declaration: “This is my son; he says he wants to become an artist.”

Ogundimu recalled that the two men burst into laughter. Grillo then called an assistant and asked him to take the young man around the Art Department.

The tour was an eye-opener, but it also brought an unexpected problem.

“This guy took me everywhere. All the works I saw were unbelievable and intimidating.”

The experience made him question his own ability. He had wanted to become an artist, but seeing the work produced by students at the institution made the ambition appear more demanding than he had imagined.

“I found myself in a dilemma, as I didn’t think I was up to the task of being an artist,” he recalled.

His father’s determination, however, did not end at Grillo’s office. The following day, he took his son to the National Council for Arts and Culture in Surulere, where he introduced him to his friend, Frank Aig-Imoukhuede. Ogundimu secured a position in the Graphics Department and encountered artists and professionals whose work would help prepare him for his next step.

He also met Kolade Oshinowo, for whom he helped design exhibition invitations and flyers.

The following year, he gained admission to Yaba College of Technology to study art.

Looking back, the young man who had doubted whether he was good enough would go on to build an artistic career that crossed countries, disciplines and cultural boundaries. His father’s intervention had brought him face to face with the realities of the profession. Grillo’s teaching would give him lessons to carry into his own practice.

Asked about Grillo’s influence on him and the students, Dr. Ade Ogundimu spoke directly about the technical foundation he received from the celebrated artist and teacher.

“Professor Yusuf Grillo taught me about pictorial composition and the use of planes, particularly in constructing the human face.”

It is a concise statement, but it helps us understand the relationship between the master and his former student. Grillo’s influence was not simply a matter of admiration for a famous artist. It involved the practical understanding of how forms, colours and planes could be arranged to construct an image.

Grillo was one of the important figures in the development of Nigerian modern art. His distinctive approach brought modernist principles into conversation with Yoruba cultural references, African visual traditions and a strong understanding of colour and composition. As a teacher at Yaba College of Technology, he helped shape generations of artists who would go on to establish their own careers.

Ogundimu is among those former students. His practice has since developed to address questions of identity, migration, cultural memory, race and the relationship between Nigeria and Britain.

He studied painting at Yaba College of Technology before continuing his education in the United Kingdom, where he earned further qualifications, including a Professional Doctorate in Fine Art.

His work has moved across painting, sculpture, printmaking and installation. In 2024, his installation Abeokuta to Willesden was presented at Waves of Change: Artistic Journeys from Nigeria to Britain, organised by the Nigeria Art Society UK at Somerset House during the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair.

The work considered migration, memory and the experience of living between cultures. These are subjects that connect with his personal history, but they also invite wider conversations about the movement of people, the legacy of Empire and the relationship between Britain and Nigeria.

Yet, even as his artistic concerns have expanded, the lesson he received from Grillo remains relevant.

As Ogundimu explained in our interview, learning from a master does not mean becoming a copy of that master. It means understanding the principles passed on and allowing them to inform the development of an individual artistic language.

That distinction is important to Lineage of Masters II. The exhibition is not an invitation for participating artists to reproduce Grillo’s work. It is an opportunity to consider how his teaching and ideas continue to find expression in the work of artists whose experiences and interests have taken them in different directions

As part of the ongoing exhibition, Ogundimu has submitted two paintings: Bless My Head and The Space Between Us.

The works offer an opportunity to consider the relationship between his artistic development and the lessons he received at Yaba College of Technology, while recognising that his practice has evolved into something distinctly his own. The two works are hung beside one another in the main gallery for the exhibition with his signature on them

It is of importance to know that the influence of Professor Yusuf Grillo is not simply a memory of his years at Yaba College of Technology. It is something he continues to engage with through his practice, interpreting the lessons he received in his own way. This becomes particularly evident in the two paintings he has submitted for Lineage of Masters II: Bless My Head and The Space Between Us.

Explaining the connection between Grillo’s teaching and his work, Ogundimu draws attention to the way he approaches composition, colour and the human face, while allowing personal expression and cultural references to shape the final image.

“In the first painting titled Bless My Head, I use simplified forms, angular structures and strong colour relationships inspired by his teaching, but I soften the geometry so the planes merge more fluidly. The closed eyes and hands against the head add emotional tension, shifting the work from formal study towards introspection. In Bless My Head, the hands suggest comfort, blessing and a plea for relief, giving the work a distinctly Nigerian spiritual and conversational quality,” he explained.

The painting therefore brings together the formal lessons of an art education and the cultural meanings that inform Ogundimu’s own artistic language. His reference to blessing, comfort and relief gives the work an emotional dimension that extends beyond the arrangement of forms and colours.

On the second painting, he explained:

“The second painting, The Space Between Us, extends Grillo’s influence through overlapping planes, contrasting colours, and cultural markings, exploring intimacy and identity. Although the two faces are physically close, the painting suggests emotional boundaries, connection and separation. The title raises the question of what exists between two intimate people such as desire, memory, trust, distance, vulnerability, or even things that cannot be spoken. The markings across the faces, the patterned hair and the intersecting lines all contribute to questions of identity, connection and perception.”

Ogundimu invites viewers to consider the complicated relationship between physical closeness and emotional understanding. Two faces may occupy the same space, yet the experiences, memories and feelings that exist between people are not always visible. Through the title and the construction of the faces, the painting opens up questions about the connections people form and the distances that can remain between them.

Read together, the two paintings offer a glimpse into how Ogundimu has carried Grillo’s teaching into his own practice. He acknowledges the influence of his former teacher in his treatment of planes, colour and composition, but the interpretations remain personal.

Nigerian cultural experience, questions of identity and the complexity of human relationships give the works their individual character.

This is also what makes Ogundimu’s participation in Lineage of Masters II significant. Artistic lineage is not about reproducing the work of a master. It is about what a student takes from that relationship and how the knowledge continues to develop through a lifetime of practice.

And for Ade Ogundimu, the encounter that began in Grillo’s office has become part of a much longer artistic conversation, one that continues through the work he makes today.

Lineage of Masters II exhibition at Yusuf Grillo Museum opened on the 25th of October 2026.

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