Tayo Olayode (born 1970) is one of Nigeria’s most exciting experimental artists who graduated from Ahmadu Bello University with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art, and has been a full time studio artist for sixteen years. Olayode’s oeuvre includes diverse works using a range of complex techniques and styles, setting him apart as an artist who spans the worlds of abstract, realist and surrealist expression.

He was mentored by leading artists including Professors Abayomi Barber, Jerry Buahri, and Ablade Glover, as well as celebrated realist, Abiodun Olaku. Olayode has participated in international exhibitions in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Dubai, and co-curated art shows in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. He is a founding member of the Iponri Art Studios, the President of
the Watercolour League, and a member of the Nigerian Society of Artists and the Guild of Professional Fine Artists.

Olayode’s outstanding artistic practice has won him multiple awards including the Fred Archibong Scholarship in 1995, the Association of Fine Arts Students (AFAS) Leadership Award in 1999, the Terra Kultur Ford Foundation Art Award for Best Young Artist in Nigeria in 2006, and the Arthouse Foundation Scholarship & Vermont Studio Cultural Exchange Competition to study at the Vermont Studio Centre in the United States in 2014