Pursuit of Happiness, a group exhibition by Windsor Gallery, Lagos invites viewers to reconsider the nature of the happiness they seek, indicating that the most meaningful experiences are often found in everyday life. By embracing the ordinary, individuals can cultivate a deeper sense of fulfillment that arises from reflection and gratitude, rather than endless striving.
The exhibition which opened on May 18th, 2025, brings together six of Africa’s most promising artists, each exploring the search for happiness in unlikely places. Their works spotlights the gem hidden in simplicity, reaffirming that indeed the profound often lives in the ordinary. Each artist contributes a unique interpretation of happiness as a virtue that should be gotten from the place of remembrance and not just one we endlessly strive to obtain.
Featured Artists
Brice Esso
Brice Esso is a multidisciplinary Ivorian artist with a master’s degree in Sculpting from the New York Academy of Art.
His artistic practice is focused on marble sculpture and crafting valuable pieces from objects. He combines traditional practices with current technological tools such as augmented reality, and robotic drilling to create his art works.
Esso’s sculptures are influenced by African art traditions and inspired by Italian Renaissance techniques. His works often incorporate elements reminiscent of Ife sculptures and explore themes such as existence, migration, and the African diaspora.
His work has been exhibited internationally, including a notable exhibition titled “Les enfants de l’homme” at the Church of Santa Maria della Spina in Pisa, Italy, in 2022. This installation featured marble sculptures aligned with the church’s central axis.
Now based in Abidjan, Esso has established Studio 08, a creative laboratory aimed at exploring the potential of the city as a rich “crossroads” of raw materials and re- sources that can be transformed into exquisite artisanal products.
David Olatoye
David Olatoye is a Nigerian-based contemporary artist. He launched his career in Lagos in 2015 after completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife. Olatoye’s work explores the concept of reconstructed and idealized domestic scenes, examining his fragmented childhood memories and the societal expectations of life in a traditional Nigerian home. He brings a critical perspective to these themes, particularly focusing on the significant role of women in his upbringing.
His works have featured in the Contemporary African Art Vernissage at the 2018 Circle de Lorraine in Brussels, and he participated in the group exhibition “Young Contemporaries 2020” at Rele Art Gallery in Lagos State, amongst others.
David ‘Kaydee’ Otaru
David Otaru is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist with a background in English and Literature Education from the University of Benin. His work blends traditional and digital techniques to explore perception, memory, and altered realities.
Otaru is recognized for his distinctive use of negative imagery, in which he inverts colors to distort perception, challenging viewers to engage with his work in unconventional ways. While his earlier works explored socio-economic structures and everyday life, his recent focus has been a deeply introspective investigation of mental health, particularly ADHD.
His paintings often contain hidden layers that reveal alternate dimensions when viewed through digital tools, such as a phone camera set to negative mode, inviting audiences to question what is visible and what remains unseen. This interplay between the seen and the obscured mirrors the experience of ADHD itself—where details are both overwhelming and elusive, and perception is in constant flux.
Otaru has exhibited both locally and internationally, including solo exhibitions at Rele Gallery (Lagos and Los Angeles), Felix Art Fair (Los Angeles), and From Lagos to Seoul with Voda Art Gallery (South Korea), among others.
Timi Light
Oluwatimilehin Oni, also known as Timi Light, is a young visual artist who utilizes his Light moniker as a metaphor for the guiding rays of his creative life. Amongst his creative expressions, the visual arts remain his strongest means of self-expression. Over the years, his art has progressed from pure passion to a major career focus with a degree in Fine and Applied Arts from Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun.
Oni’s work celebrates the beauty, strength, and resilience of Black individuals, using distorted human figures to spark imagination and creativity while emphasizing his mantra: Broken but not damaged. By leaving some elements open to interpretation, he invites viewers to mentally complete the images, fostering a deeper connection with the art pieces.
Yewande Ambeke
Yewande Ambeke is a self-trained visual artist living in Lagos, Nigeria. Through her works, she explores the layered states of the human mind through abstract figurative art. Her figures often depict personal experiences with swirls of contrasting colours representing positive and negative emotions such as joy, hope and anxiety, where each painting allows for spontaneous brush strokes/movements. Her work speaks to mental health, vulnerability, and the need for safe spaces, embracing vulnerability and the strength that can be drawn from introspective art.
Her exhibitions include Life, As We Know It; Red Earth Projects Foundation, Lagos, 2023, At Once, Then Again: Selections From Practice; Rele Gallery, Lagos, 2023, No Wahala; Loud Youth Projects, Kingston, Jamaica, 2023, the Kuenyehia Trust for Contemporary Art Prize; Accra, Ghana, 2023, Colours; Christina Geis Gallery, New Jersey, 2022 and many others. She is currently a fellow of the Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship.
Through these diverse artistic voices, Pursuit of Happiness reflects on the beauty of happiness not as a destination, but as a recollection, offering a recognition that stays with you, long after the exhibition has run its course.
The exhibition will run through June 21st at Windsor Gallery on 4c Goriola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. For more updates on art exhibitions and cultural events across Africa, stay tuned to themoveee.com.
