𝗔. 𝗔𝗱𝗲𝗸𝘂𝗻𝗹𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗷𝗼

𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙞𝙡 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝, 2025, acrylic and found imagery collage on mixed media paper, 9 x 12 inches happy new year in advance to you all! 2026’ year of the horse! keep going! keep rising! you have everything you need. thank you in advance for supporting the expansion of all that is to be and has been. shine brightly beloved and in times of doubt, always remember that the soil in your body is nourishment enough. #araabule #VILLAGER #okanbyvillager #afroabstracture #adekunleadaranijo

𝙚𝙣𝙞 𝙩𝙞 𝙤 𝙗𝙖 𝙙𝙖 𝙤𝙢𝙞 𝙨𝙞 𝙞𝙡𝙚, 𝙚𝙣𝙞 𝙣𝙖 𝙣𝙞 𝙤 𝙢𝙖 𝙩𝙚 𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙪𝙩𝙪 / 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙮𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙙 𝙙𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙤𝙤𝙡𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 (𝙤𝙙𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙬𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨), 2025 acrylic, gouache, dried foraged leaves, gel medium, oil pastel, colored pencil, and cyanotype on canvas on stretched canvas 30 x 30 inches — This painting is also about all the ways in which water moves through my practice as a really conscientious carrier and conscious force for ancestral and material memory within the work. My fascination with the water-based medium of acrylic and other medium or processes which involve water is perhaps closely linked to the ability of water to store and remember information, as classified by Toni Morision in Songs of Solomon as “having perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was”. This work which gestures its visual identity as a collage more than a traditional painting, is a discursive of materials, the way they think, the energy and memories they embody and their journeying through the work with water. It considers the transmissions of coolness whether embodied or experienced, which may sprout from the object-subject relationship as well as the intra-object interactions which are vital to the composition and its energetic valence. - More personally, To me, this painting is an ode to the primordial waters. Iba Olokun! Great Primordial Mother. When i say you say ASE! May our heads be cool. May our spirits be cool! May our hearts be cool! May our soul be cool! Just as the water is cool, may the roads be cool, so that’s when we step on it, we shall meet harvest. We pay homage to the North, to the East, to the West, to the South. We pay homage to the great mothers. We pay how much to the great fathers. As the water takes its source from the unquantifiable boundless eternal expanse, so shall our lives embody that same vastness of coolness #araabule #VILLAGER #afroabstracture #adekunleadaranijo documentation by @taytayjiggy

Installation view of 𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙙 (𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙮 𝙗𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨), 2025 acrylic, glitter, mixed media on canvas 30 x 80 inches diptych “He confessed to not being able to do anything about my condition, but after the casting cowries and deciphering their signs, he said: this is a child who didn’t want to be born, but who will always fight with death. I didn’t want to entirely lose contact with the other word of lights and rainbows possibilities. I had buried my secrets early. I buried them in the moonlight, the air alive with white moths. I buried my magic stones, my mirror, my special promises, my golden threads, objects of identity that connected me to the world of spirits. I buried them all in a secret place which I promptly forgot” “You are a child of miracles, Many powers are on your side” “The road will never swallow you, The river of your destiny will always overcome evil. May you understand your fate. Suffering will never destroy you, but will make you stronger. Success will never confuse you or scatter your spirit, but will make you fly higher into the good sunlight. Your life will always surprise you” ——— on view in 𝘿𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣, 𝘿𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙨, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘿𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙮- a solo exhibition of works by the Nigerian–born Transdisciplinary Artist, VILLAGER (b. A. Adekunle Adaranijo) on view @eubieblakecenter through October 11, 2025 Documentation by Kristofer Heng #araabule #araabule #VILLAGER #devotiondreamsanddestiny #adekunleadaranijo

𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 by Nigerian-born Contemporary Transdisciplinary Artist, VILLAGER 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗻 — VILLAGER (b. Abdulrasheed Adekunle Adaranijo), they/them, is a Nigerian-born Contemporary Transdisciplinary Artist, Cultural Producer, and African Spirituality Practitioner who oscillates between painting, collage, sculpture, performance, experimental film, installation, curation, and cultural facilitation, actively mapping and querying the intersections of material memory & intelligence, Yorùbá knowledge production, and postcolonial African identity as an evolving interconnected topography of critical inquiry. VILLAGER’s practice, is deeply informed by their migration from Lagos, Nigeria, to the U.S. in 2013, exploring and tracing the relationality between objects, bodies, and spaces by excavating their phenomenological possibilities and elucidating their spiritual, ancestral, formal, sensory, social, cultural, and political significances beyond linear narratives. VILLAGER has been the subject of solo exhibitions–“Devotion, Dreams, and Destiny” at the Eubie Blake Cultural Center (2025), “(O)KAN: recent works by VILLAGER (2025) at Motor House Baltimore, ÀṢẸ: Embodying the Divine (2024) at Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower, and BUSH BOY! (2022) at Chesapeake Arts Center in Baltimore, MD. Their visual art practice continues to find resonance through group exhibitions both stateside and internationally including, Sou(l): Mostra de Arte Afro-Diaspórica, Artspace Vigidal, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Diasporic Crossing, Southside Contemporary, Richmond, VA, BLAQ SHEEP, Superchief Gallery LA, Los Angeles, CA, AFROFUTURISM: 100 years after the Harlem Renaissance, Papermill Playhouse, Millburn, NJ, B24 (Best in Baltimore) Artscape Exhibition, Riggs Gallery & Leidy Gallery (MICA), Baltimore, MD to name a few. VILLAGER’s performance practice has garnered institutional commissions and invitations at The Peale Museum, THE ROUSE COMPANY FOUNDATION GALLERY, Creative Alliance, BlackRock Center for the Arts, and Maryland Art Place. Their artwork can be found in private art collections in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Rio de Janeiro.

details of 𝘼𝙋𝙤𝙚𝙩𝙉𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙚 / 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 ÀṢẸ 𝙩𝙤𝙤, 2024 documentation by @taytayjiggy email [email protected] for acquisition inquiries #araabule #VILLAGER #asebyvillager #afroabstracture #adekunleadaranijo

𝘼𝙋𝙤𝙚𝙩𝙉𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙚 / 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 ÀṢẸ 𝙩𝙤𝙤, 2024 acrylic on canvas 24 x 24 inches / 60.96 x 60.96 cm “This approach to material memory and intelligence liberated my approach to painting by introducing objects and tools, like scrapers and forks, to create relational gestural textures and scars that transmit energetic potential into and beyond the surface of the art object. These marks manifested as angular/circular woven patterns—referencing Yorùbá textile and woodworking traditions, and the formal qualities of Ilé-Ifẹ̀ bronze heads—activate the work’s information, lineage, and essential nature. This energetic and spiritual resonance grants it the ability to respond to space and context, reflecting what scholar Rowland Abiodun describes as ÀṢẸ: an indigenous Yorùbá philosophy of command, energy, power, and vital life force present in all living and nonliving things. I am also interested in the energetic valence of the subject, thinking how to deploy a devotion to mark-making as a way of deciphering composition and arrangement in a way that feels almost biographical. improvisation and reworking resonates with me as language or tradition in itself, functioning as a space of negotiation and aggregation of culture, memory, and meaning. a space where rewriting of narratives can occur.” excerpt by VILLAGER from studio notes. documentation by @taytayjiggy email [email protected] for acquisition inquiries #araabule #VILLAGER #asebyvillager #afroabstracture #adekunleadaranijo

details of 𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙜𝙚𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙖𝙣 / 𝙞 𝙖𝙢 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙮 𝙣𝙚𝙭𝙩 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙥𝙨, 2023 #araabule #VILLAGER #asebyvillager #afroabstracture #adekunleadaranijo

𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙜𝙚𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙖𝙣 / 𝙞 𝙖𝙢 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙮 𝙣𝙚𝙭𝙩 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙥𝙨, 2023 acrylic on canvas 18 x 16 inches / 45.72 x 40.64 cm thinking a lot here about process, non linear time depicted as a circle as a spiral, as well as progress and sight documentation by @taytayjiggy email [email protected] for acquisition inquiries #araabule #VILLAGER #asebyvillager #afroabstracture #adekunleadaranijo

details of 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙥𝙝 / 𝙂𝙊𝙊𝙁𝘽𝘼𝙇𝙇, 2024 #araabule #VILLAGER #asebyvillager #afroabstracture #adekunleadaranijo

𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙥𝙝 / 𝙂𝙊𝙊𝙁𝘽𝘼𝙇𝙇, 2024 acrylic on canvas 24 x 24 inches / 60.96 x 60.96 cm ​My approach to painting as a tradition of expression is one that rightfully emphasizes my connection to, and emphasis on composition, form, and content, the morphology of the image space, the art object, the subject, and to realms which can never be fully contained. This idea of containment, I think, over the years has taken shape through this body of painting work, as I’m thinking about how to characterize this very unique approach to painting, one that is energetically conscious of itself, while also very much holding the weight of the responsibility of creating a container where the ideas can be fully embodied as a subject matter in itself. This work is an attempt at bringing these ideas together with the container of the subject, using expression and emotion as a vehicle of activation. My choice of color, texture, and marks, in many ways, serves as a ground for eliciting that very inner focus on the emotion of joy which we all possess. The forms that undulate the painting, as well as the subtractive and additive processes, allow for the combination of ideas and connection to the art object to become a space of generating joy. Joy for the way our existence becomes embedded in the sway of emotions that flow through us in our lifetimes. Joy in the simple moments. Joy as a sacred container to always return to. This work also unknowingly became a space of negotiating the ways in which color can function as a physical and psychological medium in itself, and how the various properties like color intensity and light intensity can change depending on quantity, shape, placement, and ultimately inform both visual and metaphysical perceptions documentation by @taytayjiggy email [email protected] for acquisition inquiries #araabule #VILLAGER #asebyvillager #afroabstracture #adekunleadaranijo

𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙨𝙪𝙗𝙙𝙪𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣, 2025, acrylic and found imagery on mixed media paper, 9 x 12 inches in private collection - i’ve always been interested in the color red for not only it pigment properties but also it’s capacity for communicating virility and potency. red has this urgency to it that refuses to be ignored. it beckons for no one’s attention yet it receives it. we are directed by that color every day, be it at stops signs, fire trucks, traffic lights. red is always saying, i am here, i am chaos and i am also serenity. that translation of experience of moving and being directed almost divinely between those polar moments is also gestured here as a container for the silent contagiousness and resurgent power of the colour itself.

𝙄 𝙢𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙙𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙙𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣, 2025 acrylic and found imagery collage on mixed media paper, 9 x 12 inches thinking about image making and the construction of an image by challenging what constitutes an image and aggravating the work beyond the constraints of an “image” towards a nexus where objects, bodies, and spaces function as a technology—one which is equally ritualistic, ancestral, and tactile in essence—for wayfinding. I am not interested in one “tradition” of image making, be it painting, collage, sculpture but rather quite curious about uncovering and challenging the sublime, confluent, and often contradictory forces that shape “tradition”. The evolution and dissemination of culture, history, identity, consciousness, and belonging—as it slips and strengthens through the contours of time, spirit, place, memory, and material. #araabule #VILLAGER #afroabstracture #adekunleadaranijo