Meet 20-year-old Nigerian pencil artist who is making his country proud
It has long come to the world’s attention that people of accomplishment rarely sit back and let things happen to them; they go out and make things happen
20-year old Alesh Akeem is Nigerian leading pencil artist. A virtuoso in the world of Art, whose remarkable efforts has caught the world’s attention.
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Born in Ajegunle- one of the most feared places in Lagos, Nigeria, is Aleshinloye Hakeem Olayinka (Alesh Akeem) who came across art in Primary two as an elementary school pupil, even though they never had a fine art teacher in his ‘Ajegunle-based’ primary school.
The young lad introduced himself to art while borrowing comic books from friends and try to replicate their illustrations. No sooner did he save-up his pocket money as a kid and started buying his own comic books, drawing books and pencils. Little did he know that marked his beginning of investment into a career that would make him a global brand.
According to Alesh Akeem, He fell in love with art because of its possibilities to create his own world and express his imaginations. This drove little Akeem to drawing every day as he would even use drawing as an escape button from house chores and errands which were major distractions for him as a child.
As days, months, and years go by, his passion for art grew beyond imagination. One of the experiences he won’t forget in a hurry was in Junior Secondary School Two (JSS2) in an integrated science class. While the teacher taught in class, he was busy drawing and the teacher caught him. He was expecting to receive the beating of his life but to his surprise, the teacher said “Shebi you like to draw abi? Oya come and draw this skeleton from the textbook.” That was a sweet one for him since he had been drawing for a while, only that he was too short for the chalk board so he had to use a class bench to enhance his height. After drawing the skeleton successfully and almost perfectly, it changed the way teachers and other students saw him. He became the ‘official school artist.’
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At age 15, brilliant Akeem got admission offer into Pentecost University (PENTVARS), Ghana to study accounting but couldn’t accept the admission offer due to financial constraints; same year, he got another offer from to Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun state but he also declined the admission due to cultism stories surrounding the institution back then.
After a year he got admission offer into University of Ilorin and Nigeria’s Premier Monotechnic, Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Lagos but chose NIJ since it was a professional school and more practical based.
His course mates at NIJ would recall Alesh Akeem littering his entire class walls with art works, many criticized the art works, some appreciated them, while others felt in different.
A course mate told Legit.ng “Back then his artworks were always all over the class, and I can remember that only one lecturer encouraged him to continue. In fact the lecturer told him he wants to find a new art piece on the class wall each week when he comes to our class to lecture us. Back then art was just fun for him.”
His first published work was a cartoon in a campus newsletter which drew some attention to him in the institute; people wanted to meet the boy that did the illustration as it generated little controversy within the students’ environment.
What was fun for Alesh Akeem became a full time profession when things turned a little sour and he had to drop out of Nigerian Institute of Journalism in 2014 due to financial constraint. He deferred his admission due to lack of sponsor and his father’s incapability to meet up with his tuition fee. The lad went back into the Ajegunle slum where he came from.
“After leaving school, I didn’t just want to stay at home in Ajegunle. I decided to meet a roadside Artist along Ikeja, but got discouraged by the amount he requested. I really wanted to learn more from him, but I couldn’t even afford the fee, so I started going to Cyber Café to view and watch foreign professional artists work, developing myself, trying new techniques and I became an intermediate with every day practice. Later, I started posting my work on all available online platform and gained some recognition after my artworks made the front page on Nairaland Forum. Gradually, I started receiving commissions from clients on Facebook, then I bought a smart phone which help out in my research and I was learning anything I could whenever I go online. Then I realized that one doesn’t really have to go to an individual or professional school to learn some things in this modern world, the internet is there for you to make research on whatever you want to know. I started comparing my work to others and accepted faultfinders to criticize my work. My perseverance grew stronger and I just had to unleash the ‘art demon’ in me.” Alesh Akeem said.
THE TURNING POINT:
READ ALSO: T-Pain praises Alesh Akeem, says portraits are dynamic
Alesh Akeem, most people will agree became a household name after he met with American singer and Grammy winner, Ciara who treasured his artwork and took to her Instagram and Twitter handles to announce him to the world. That same night he lost his loving and ever-supportive father to the cold hands of death. He told Legit.ng he would refer to that day as the “Best Day and Worst Day of his life”
“After that moment, I signed a management deal and since then, new doors have opened, glory be to God” says Alesh Akeem.
In 2016, Alesh Akeem returned to school- Nigerian Institute of Journalism where he deferred his admission to complete his programme.
Alesh Akeem today has worked with lots of brands and top personalities both on local and international scale. Some of who are; Football Legend- Pele, American multiple Grammy winning artist- T-pain, American best rap group- MIGOS, The Classic man- Jidenna and many more
Meet Female vulcanizer from Kwara state in Legit.ng video below:
Source: Legit.ng
