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January Spotlight Artists: Yvadney Davis, Nana Osei, and David Awoleye
- THE.CCART
- Jan 2
- 2 min read
As we step into a new year, THE.CCART kicks off 2026 by spotlighting three artists whose practices are rooted in memory, identity, and personal reflection. From the quiet intimacy of domestic life to the expressive power of texture and tradition, Yvadney Davis, Nana Osei, and David Awoleye each offer distinct ways of seeing and feeling through their work. Together, they open the year with honest, grounded perspectives that reflect the past while pointing towards the future.
Yvadney Davis: Painting Memory and Belonging
Yvadney Davis is a British Caribbean artist whose practice centres on memory, home, and the lived experience of the Caribbean diaspora in the UK. Returning to painting during the pandemic, she found the process both meditative and grounding, allowing mark-making to become a way of holding emotion and history. Her work draws deeply from family narratives, particularly the Windrush generation, transforming domestic details such as wallpaper, pattern, and ornament into visual archives of belonging. Through painting and collage, Davis captures everyday moments, inherited stories, and collective memory, creating spaces where personal history becomes shared experience and where overlooked lives are made visible with tenderness and care.
Nana Osei: Portraits Rooted in Heritage and Hope
Nana Osei, also known as Victor Osei Mensah, is a Ghanaian contemporary artist whose figurative paintings draw from ancestry, identity, and youthful optimism. Self-taught and working mainly with acrylic and oil on canvas, he centres his subjects through expressive eyes that act as mirrors of emotion and inner life. Ancestral tribal marks and patterned details appear across his figures, grounding them in African heritage while speaking to the ambitions of adolescence. His work reflects a personal language shaped by memory, culture, and observation, using colour and form to translate emotion into visual stories. Through painting, Osei shares fragments of his identity, inviting viewers to connect with both feeling and tradition.
David Awoleye: Layers of Texture and Meaning
David Awoleye is a Nigerian contemporary visual artist based in Lagos, working primarily with mixed media. His practice explores texture, material, and memory, drawing on elements such as Ankara fabric, shoelaces, textile liners, and beads to build richly layered surfaces. Largely self-taught, he developed an early interest in experimentation, allowing materials to guide both process and outcome. Culture, personal history, and lived experience shape his visual language, with works that sit between abstraction and figuration. Creating in solitude, often alongside music, Awoleye describes his process as meditative and emotionally driven. His work reflects themes of resilience and hope, inviting viewers into open-ended conversations and personal interpretations of complex, layered realities.
Start the year with reflective, powerful work from artists who draw from memory, identity, and the material world to share stories that resonate. Explore more about Yvadney Davis, Nana Osei, and David Awoleye on THE.CCART.
By THE.CCART
