Nike Art Gallery, located at Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria is the largest privately owned Art Gallery in Africa with over 25,000 pieces of artworks of different forms housed in it. The gallery building also houses Nike’s Textile Museum with a huge collection of Nike’s Adire fabrics.
Amongst the array of artworks are paintings by the Octogenarian Ex-Police Commissioner, Chief Reuben Osaruyi Okundaye, who is also the husband to Chief Nike Okundaye, the founder of the art gallery.
With his cheerful and welcoming spirit, he spoke briefly about how he gracefully chills out the eighth decade of his life after 23 years outside service. He said,
“I was a civil servant; a commissioner of police in Lagos, Osun, and Benue. I was the Commandant in Police College here in Lagos and also in Jos. I also acted as a Military Governor in Benue, and then I retired from service in 1999, about 23 years ago.
“I will be 88 years old on the 21st of July and the reason why I come here is to talk to people like you so that I don’t feel bored at home. You know, all our children are independent. A lot of them are not here. It’s only me and my wife. I’m a tea person so I relax sometimes drinking my tea; sometimes, I paint. I used to be a good reader but now, I listen more to good music because good music energizes your spirit, cools you down, helps you not to feel bored, and it relaxes you.”
He also gave some details about some of his art works. Referring to a vertical array of four of his splendid paintings, he highlighted,
“Those are portrait paintings of some of the people who come here. For the one on top, I used oil pastel. The face is graphite while the background is water colour. The second one is more of graphite and charcoal. But the third one is a multimedia. I used oil pastel, coloured pencils, and graphite pencils (instead of lead) to make it glow. For the one below it, I did not use oil pastel.”
In view of his brilliant paintings and sketches, he could be called an artist but according to him, “I do not consider myself an artist because I don’t earn money from it. I just paint for leisure even though it looks professional.”
One of the beautiful things about the Nike Art Gallery is its generosity to accommodate all lovers and appreciators of arts for free as it serves as an igniter of creativity and enrichment for the soul. It is a tourism destination for many international tourists visiting Lagos where remarkable artistic items such as pens, earrings, books, can be bought as well.
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2 comments
Chief Reuben Osaruyi Okundaye
July 2, 2023 at 9:22 pm
Favour, I only just read the article on our conversation at the gallery during your visit to our art gallery in Lekki. That was very good. You are absolutely wonderful featured writer. Just carry on, the sky will be the beginning of your successes and achievements.
Shelawzs
July 3, 2022 at 3:13 pm
Lovely read.