The artist
zari Olawale adio, Info, Sketchbook, logs
I’m Zari — an artist shaped by memory, migration, and identity. My work is rooted in the textures of West African life and the dissonance of living across worlds. I create to trace what’s been lost, to listen for the silences in stories passed down—or not passed at all. Through painting, sculpture, and mixed media, I explore the emotional landscapes of displacement: the fractures in families, the shifts in language, the rituals that remain even when home is far away. Much of my work is inspired by native West African philosophies that honour continuity, oral memory, and the unseen threads that bind us. I don’t create to mend the cracks, but to make space for them—to acknowledge what’s missing, and to let that absence speak.