TOBI ALUKO
Tobi Aluko is inspired by the artistic expressions of the Romantic era. He creates paintings, fiction, poetry and rhetoric in this expression, but reimagined for a modern audience. He considers his expression, 21st Century Romanticism. His artistic focus revolves around the central theme of love, beauty and the love for nature. Tobi believes, ‘...art has the power to teach love, a profound need in today’s world.’
by Tobi Aluko ©️
Awe
What do you feel when you think of me?
Do I crawl on your skin?
Does the hair on your skin know?
Or does your mind path to embrace the awe?
of what could be
of what you want to be
of what I want to be
of what we want to be
Tobi’s Negritude.
Negritude celebrates the beauty of a Black woman. I tried to capture a static expression of the subject of this painting. An expression that draws you in and makes you wonder what the subject was thinking while this image was being captured.
Love Colours.
Love Colours. The aim here was to capture the beauty of love through mundane colours. I restricted the painting to four colours to bring out the expression of what I call the ordinariness of love. I also attempted to capture this in a poem I wrote called Lavender Fields.
by Tobi Aluko ©
Lavender Fields
I want to walk with you
through lavender fields.
Purple, like the crown
on a mother’s head.
Mother, like a minstrel
who sings the truth to children.
Lover, who sits by my side
and lets me rest my head on her lap.
Peace, what we find
walking through lavender fields.
Happiness, what sits in our heads
As we walk through lavender fields.
Forever, what we sing
as we drive off from the church.
Just wed, what our plate number reads
as we sit in the backseat.
Lavender― what fills our car
as the church appears smaller in our rearview mirror.
Tobi’s Negritude II
Negritude II was a second attempt to capture essence of the same subject. Here I was also enamoured by the dress of my subject, so I tried to capture the drapes in a beautiful way. The subject is also static, this allows a viewer to interpret the expression of the subject in any way they feel.
by Tobi Aluko ©
Summer Days
Cherish the summer days,
like a vampire cherishes the winter nights.
Let us hold hands,
as we walk on the concrete path,
that leads to the beach.
Your fedora sits perfectly on your head.
Your sunglasses reflect the blue of the sky,
with a golden highlight.
Listen to the waves... listen.
Does the sweetness of the sea salt,
find its place on your lips?
Our clothes flip-flap in response to the wind.
Can you hear the seagulls call one another
as they land on the shore?
Let us dance on the beach,
to the rhythm of the waves,
as the water washes over our feet.
We should make the most of summer,
until fall ushers us into winter,
where we sit by the fireplace,
with hot chocolate clasped between our hands.
AUGER GEO-GALLERY
Geo Gallery is an ongoing open call for artworks. We invite artists of any format to submit their works for our internal windows display in the Sovereign Centre.