Biography

Born in London, Tobi Onabolu is an artist-filmmaker and writer, currently based in Grand Popo, Benin Republic. His work explores the intersections between intuition, inner child reconnection, and collective healing.

Onabolu’s practice delves into expanding consciousness through space and time, using his body and lived experiences as a conceptual starting point. His cinematic dreamscapes and meditative soundscapes integrate breath work, movement, and dance, as he meditates on the ethereal nature of human existence, considering people as energetic and spiritual beings beyond physical forms.

Amongst his collective exhibitions include All the Lives Imagined, Galerie Ourrouss, Dakar OFF Biennale; Pave Your Path, Videotage, Hong Kong; B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, Frankfurt ; Fondation Zinsou at Lagos Photo Festival; Burning Things, RCA, London, and g39, Cardiff; and Time Tells All, Borna Soglo Gallery, Cotonou.

He holds an MA in African Studies from SOAS, with a thesis on his great uncle, artist Chief Aina Onabolu, the founding father of modernism in Nigeria. He is a Film London (FLAMIN) Fellow; a G.A.S. Foundation Fellow; an Artistic Advisory board member for Culturescapes Biennale, Basel (2022 – 23), and a guest curator at ART X Lagos (2022).

Full portfolio available upon request.

Image credits: Ifebusola Shotunde