Lawal Said

Lawal Said paints from the place where memory, rhythm, and emotion converge. Trained in painting at Yaba College of Technology in Nigeria and with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Said works large and loud: acrylic canvases that translate music and movement into bold color, layered gesture, and theatrical light. His work is at once intimate and communal, inviting viewers to feel ancestral echoes and the pulse of lived experience.

Education and Formation

• Yaba College of Technology — Painting
• Art Institute of Pittsburgh — Bachelor of Graphic Design, 2012

• Artistic Practice

Lawal’s journey through media informs his restless, tactile approach. He began with pencils and crayons, moved through oils, watercolor, pastel, photography, and now centers on large-scale acrylics. He treats color as voice and gesture as rhythm, favoring a fauvist palette and an expressionist sense of drama that foregrounds light, movement, and emotional truth. His paintings make the ordinary intensity of feeling visible and urgent.

• Themes and Influence
Core themes: Music, dance, memory, ritual, emotional resonance

• Visual language:
Fauvist color; expressionist gesture; layered surfaces that suggest time and archive

• Intent:
To transform private recollection into shared experience and to invite embodied looking and movement

• Exhibitions and Professional Activity

Lawal exhibits regularly in solo and group shows and appears at art festivals in and beyond Columbus, Ohio. He is an active member of the Worthington Area Art League, the Guild of Artists & Artisans, and the Ohio Art League, contributing to local arts programming and community exhibitions.

• Studio Services and Commissions

Lawal accepts commissions and creates site-specific work and murals. He offers artist talks and studio visits that focus on process, music-informed composition, and the emotional architecture of color.

• Contact

• Website: www.lawalsaid.com
• Location: Columbus, Ohio