Gasali Onireke Adeyemo hails from the small rural village of Offatedo, located in Osun State, Nigeria. Born to a trader and a farmer, Gasali describes his family as rich in spirit and culture. These influences fed his artistic potential earlier on, Gasali shares “From a very young age, I would attend social gatherings, such as weddings, naming and burial ceremonies, and other cultural parties offering to sketch portraits of the guest, for a small donation. My sketching career combined with long, hard days working on the village farms provided adequate income to successfully complete my academic education through high school.”
In 1990, Gasali discovered the Nike Center for Arts and Culture, where he would remain for a total of six years mastering the arts of batik painting, indigo dyeing, quilt making, embroidery, applique, and batik painting on rice paper. After five years of learning and teaching at the Nike Center, Gasali’s work was exhibited in Bayreuth, Germany, alongside the work of five other artists from Nigeria. From there Gasali’s career as an artist flourished rapidly. He has traveled across the United States conducting workshops and exhibitions sharing the arts and culture of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. He currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico.