Ebenezer Akinola

EBENEZER SAMUEL AKINOLA

Born 1968, Ibadan, Nigeria
Lives and works in Nigeria

Ebenezer Samuel Akinola is a museum-caliber contemporary African painter whose practice has spanned more than three decades. Widely recognized for his psychologically powerful portraiture, Akinola’s work interrogates Black identity, authority, spirituality, and cultural memory through a refined synthesis of realism and abstraction.

Akinola occupies a rare position within Nigeria’s art historical canon. He received prestigious state commissions to produce official portraits of Presidents Nnamdi Azikiwe, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and Olusegun Obasanjo, now held in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art, Nigeria

 Such institutional placement underscores both his national significance and long-term cultural relevance.

His market presence spans key global art centers across Africa, Europe, and the United States. Akinola has exhibited at leading international platforms including Investec Art Fair (Cape Town), FNB Art Fair (South Africa), and AKAA Art Fair (Paris), and has worked with established galleries such as Nicole Gallery (USA), Omenka Gallery (Nigeria), Eclectica Contemporary (South Africa), Gallery Guichard (USA), and Color Me Africa Fine Arts (USA).