Bio
Braimah Tayo Lawal, an American-born, Ghana-raised artist of Nigerian heritage, is a Chicago contemporary postmodern visual artist. His figurative abstract paintings explore motifs of the evolving meaning of home, grief, and identity. Inspired by his specific life memories from the late 2000’s and his family’s archived pictures, Braimah dissects his childhood using imagery and symbolism as a means of storytelling to his audience.
Much of his work is directed by the memory and grief surrounding the loss of his father, a ship’s captain, who envisioned a different and more traditional path for his son. Though he would eventually love to create using oil paint, he primarily uses acrylic and oil pastel on canvas; Braimah’s palette features the vibrant colors of the Ghanaian and Nigerian flags, blending cultural symbolism with his own life story and rooting his work in themes of culture, spiritual reflections, lineage, loss, and a sense of belonging.
During the pandemic, painting became Braimah’s lifeline, transforming his passion into purpose and a practice that saved his life. Influenced by artists like Amoako Boafo, Kerry James Marshall, Henry Taylor, Ludovic Nkoth, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, and Gideon Appah, he is inspired by their ability to translate personal and cultural narratives onto canvas. Likewise, Braimah views his art as a sacred dialogue between self, God, and community; an act of self-expression that he believes is both public and transformative.
Through his paintings, he shares this gift to inspire youth and children of color, especially those from immigrant backgrounds, to embrace art and vulnerability unapologetically as both a birthright and a means of survival.
Braimah made his museum debut in a group show at the Springfield Museum of Art and since then, he has gone on to be featured at other notable exhibitions, most recently at the Chicago Voyagers ‘Future Voyagers’ exhibition, which commissioned Chicago-based minority artists in the exploration of portrait paintings of diverse youth in the community. He recently collaborated as a live painter to promote Global Nigerian artist Burna Boy’s upcoming ‘No Sign of Weakness’ tour at the ‘Afrobeats to the World’ event in Chicago.