Okey Ofomata’s paintings juxtapose anxiety, chance, and circumstance. Working in oil and acrylic, he creates his pieces with photographic compositions using thick and heavy brush strokes that result in a dense, textural surface. Ofomata’s imagery ranges from pop culture to personal memory.

As he observes the world around him, re-occurring themes of sports, body movement, social gatherings, and fleeting moments in restaurants appear. By situating his subjects within the familiar, Ofomata imbues ordinary spaces with a weight of surrealism and allegory.

In Ofomata’s work there is a duality between accelerated movement and the human pleasures of stillness. Dark, rich colors fill his canvases in his storytelling as he immerses the viewer into figurative abstraction. Ofomata constructs a narrative around the struggle and determination that accompany the body’s typical fight-or-flight response, guiding visitors along each subject’s journey.