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Andre Ajibade has been drawing and painting since the age of 7. He started out drawing sports figures and cutting them out to play. Not long after, he found that he was quite good at drawing the images from his sports books to look like the photo. At this point he drew and colored only sports figures, which gave him a better understanding of form in body and clothing.
After moving back to the United States after a 5 year stint in Nigeria, Andre's Mother took a vested interest in his art. She gave him complete support and splurged on all his needed art supplies. One medium she bought was oil pastels, which Andre Had never heard of or used. He dabbled in this medium a bit but kept mainly to oil paints, especially in college.
Around 1987, Andre stopped using oils and did more work in water colors. He loved the Bart Forbes style of being loose and colors running off the figures and out of the lines, a style Andre emulates with his water colors. Andre also began experimenting and teaching himself how to use oil pastels. Today, this his main medium and he continues to learn and add new twist to it.
By the mid 90's, Andre chose a new subject for his art. He began to do cultural figures from Africa. This was inspired by his growing political views and past experiences living in Nigeria as a child. These pieces made great impact. They offered colorful people and scenery. Andre still does cultural art but has added scenes of domestic America and even some erotica. His works have been displayed around LA in group shows like Art and Democracy at the Angel's Gate Cultural Center, Cannibal Flower monthly art show, Left Coast Gallery in Studio City, Lucy Florence gallery in La as well as being published in the June/July Family digest and the 2008 African American Heritage Monthly calender and cultural guide.
