\u201cI cross the boundaries of traditional masculinity, macho culture, societal gender assertions and associations,” says Samuel Olayombo, who works with oils, acrylics, charcoal and pastels to create vibrant and large-scale canvases of predominately male but non-gender normative portraits. Using a palette knife to convey intricate 3D skin textures, he pays homage to classic artists from Van Gogh and Arja Valimaki to El Dragg Okwoju and Barkley Hendricks; and he prefers to use traditionally ‘female’ colours, like rose and pastel pinks, to depict seemingly brute masculine subjects: \u201cFor me, regardless of gender, we are all equal and this is the major reason why I employ the colour pink in my paintings. I want to correct the notion that pink is feminine … I envision my portraits as an effort to change representations of masculinity, and shift ideas on what it means to be a man.\u201d<\/p>\n
To 11 November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"