Second Skin: the dual life of Fola David

Adefemi Gbadamosi, better known as Fola David, is a modern-day Nigerian super-hero: doctor by day, artistby night. The 27-year-old is muchin demand in both guises and whilethat leaves him little time to rest, hewouldn’t have it any other way.

“Living life as a medical doctor and artist has been quite excitingand yes it has its tough periods,” hesays. “Most days I lose sleep for a longstretch just to fit it all in.

”With time, it seems, in such short supply, perhaps it helps that when itcomes to one branch of his art, FolaDavid works fast, superhero fast. Ittakes him less than five minutes to create one of his instantly recognisable high-speed portraits – an achievement made all the more remarkable by the fact he paints each work upside down, righting the canvas only when he has finished for the big reveal. It’s quite something to witness and his speed-painting has become a popular piece of performance art on the Lagos club scene. His debut show – which saw him first use the stage name Fola David, an amalgam of his names Folarin and David that “turned out quite nice”, he says – was seven years ago. He began by painting a portrait of Jesus and since then celebrities from Nigeria and beyond musicians such as Patoranking and Trey Songz to Yoruban King Ooni of Ife Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi have booked him to entertain their crowds or capture their image in a speed-painting portrait.

“I have worked with countless celebrities both local and international,” he says. “I have also graced the stage with Africa’s biggest acts and it has been a wonderful journey. I have made a lot of friends along the way including musicians, managers, dancers, comedians, poets and so many more.”

TALENT

Dr Fola David

one of his hyperreal portraits

Artistic calling

Running in such glamorous circles turned the young Fola David’s head to the life of the artist and he admits for a time he began to resent his responsibilities as a medical student, which represented the life his education-focused parents wanted for him rather than his own aspirations.

However, he not only stuck with the medical training – he holds a degree in medicine and Surgery from the University of Lagos’ College of Medicine and is now a GP – he has found he has a passion for it that rivals his love of art and has plotted a new way forward in which the two careers can converge rather than conflict.

At age 18, having just started medical school, Fola David was already starting to take art seriously. While he would go on to show he could also paint flashily fast, here he was painstakingly involved in creating pencil and painted portraits of incredible clarity. “For my hyper-realistic artworks, I typically spend a long time on them. Sometimes they can take up many months to complete,” he says. “The level of detailing is very important and nothing is left out.”

Hyperreal

The results are so lifelike that they can fool the viewer into thinking they are looking at a photograph and Fola David has become a leading light of the emerging hyperrealist art community in Nigeria. In 2017 he was nominated for The Future Awards Africa Prize for Art and Culture and in the same year the Omenka Gallery, a prominent contemporary art space in Lagos, shone a spotlight on the homegrown movement in its Insanity exhibition, in 2017, with Fola David among the artists featured.

In finding subjects for many of these immersive portraits, the artist looked to his medical other life. His work in dermatology during his medical postings had brought him into contact with patients with skin conditions such as vitiligo and ichthyosis. For Fola David these markings were striking, unusual and beautiful and he sought to celebrate them, along with other supposed flaws such as freckles, wrinkles and stretch marks, in a series of work entitled ‘Skin’.

These finely detailed portraits not only documented skin conditions – being exhibited in several universities and hospitals across Lagos, including the Maternity Hospital – they challenged the conventional notions of beauty.

Beauty in imperfection

A campaign ran alongside the collection encouraging people the world over to embrace their flaws. He says: “I strongly believe our imperfections make us beautiful, unique and special. I take it as part of my mission to show off this beauty through my art as much as possible.

“I have come to see that my art boosts the self-confidence of people living with those conditions.”

The ‘Skin’ series has received international recognition with last year seeing selected works from it at the prestigious Saatchi Other Art Fair in Chicago, USA. The artist has used his growing profile to help spread health messages that are dear to him.

Most notably, when the first wave of coronavirus struck in early 2020, he set up the Fola David Foundation, an outreach programme that circulated professional medical care to those who needed it most across Nigeria.

IMPERFECT BEAUTY

Fola David’s work reveals the flaws that make us special

“I saw a need for the proper education of communities about the virus. With my foundation I was able to give out facemasks, teach the importance of hand-washing, distribute palliatives because there was a national lockdown, and create awareness on other health issues. We have also carried free medical outreaches in all zones of Nigeria since inception.”

Outreach work

As the pandemic continues so does the outreach work with the start of 2021 seeing Fola David and self-made millionaire Paul Orajiaka’s respective foundations team up to offer three days of medical assistance in Anambra State.

The results are so lifelike that they can fool the viewer into thinking they are looking at a photograph and Fola David has become a leading light of the emerging hyperrealist art community in Nigeria

Fola David is a very hands-on presence at these events, revealing the value he places on human interaction whether it be in medicine or in art. Such tireless investment in his work led to him being nominated last year for the Nigerian Medical Association’s inaugural Young Physician of the Year award.

International shows

The virus has put on hold plans for his art to exhibited in London and Canada, but Fola David continues to work at his studio in Lagos – inspirational music always playing in the background – and he is also working closely with Ooni of Ife Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi to, hesays, “position African art on theglobal stage”.

That’s quite a to-do list andevidence of plenty more sleeplessnights to come, but Fola Davidwouldn’t have it any other way: “Mypractice as a doctor and my work asan artist are very important parts ofme and I will not be dropping anyoneof them for the other.”

SKIN DEEP