Dr. AKANDE, Abiodun Olasupo
Personal Statement
Abiodun Olasupo Akande is an Associate Professor of African Art and Visual Epistemologies at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He holds a PhD in African Studies from the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. His work explores how visual and verbal cultures function as systems of knowledge through which history, identity, and meaning are interpreted within African contexts.
Akande’s research focuses on indigenous artistic systems and the evolving transformations shaping contemporary African cultural practices. A central aspect of his scholarship examines cosmology as an intellectual framework for the interpretation of the arts, moving beyond its treatment as mere ethnological material to understand how cosmological thought structures artistic philosophy, perception, and knowledge production.
He concretizes these research interests through his painting practice, producing works that engage Yoruba cosmological themes, where artistic creation becomes a site for exploring metaphysical ideas, liminality, duality, and relationships between visible and invisible worlds.
He has received international invitations and research residencies across Africa, Europe, and the United States. Akande serves as Editor of the Eyo Journal of the Arts and Humanities, the official journal of the Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Lagos, and as Editor-in-Chief of the Nigerian Arts Reflection Journal, the official journal of the Society of Nigerian Artists, Oyo State Chapter.
Qualifications
B. A. Fine Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria (1989). M.A. African Studies – Vsiual Arts, University of Ibadan (1993). PGDE – Education, University of Ado Ekiti (2007). PhD African Studies – Visual Arts, University of Ibadan, (2015)
Selected Publications and Contributions to Knowledge
- Akande, A. O. (2024). Fleeting Identities: African Worship Objects or African Arts? Icheke Journal of the Faculty of Humanities 22(1) pp. 123-133.
- Akande, A.O. (2023). “Art and Life at Isale-Oyo Community: Dividuation Beyond the ‘I’ and ‘We’ to the ‘Atypical Ternary Others.” M. Ott & B. Diop (Eds.) Decolonial Aesthetics 1: Tangled Humanism in the Afro-European Context, pp. 129–141. J.B. Metzler (Springer Nature) Berlin, Heidelberg.
- Akande, A.O. (2023). Ilé L’àbọ̀ Simi Oko: Cogitations and Reflections about Homeland, Maxim and Theoretical Propensity for Yorùbá Religion Influences between Ọ̀yọ́, Sábę and Ifè̩-Ana. Journal of Religion in Africa (Brill),53(2) pp. 197–219. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340249
- Akande, A.O. (2022). A Reconsideration of the History and Iconology of Yorùbá Equestrian Figure Through Two Ifá Verses and the Ojúde-Ọba Festival. African Arts, 55(2), pp. 36–49. (University of California, Los Angeles). https://doi.org/10.1162/afar_a_00655
- Akinmade, K., & Akande, A. (2025). Sacred Materiality And Spiritual Agency: Yoruba Cosmological Knowledge In The Art Of Jelili Atiku And Peju Alatise. Eyo Journal of The Arts and Humanities, 5(1), 82-93. https://doi.org/10.52968/15061573
