Highlights of Toolz’s interview with visual artiste; Laolu Senbanjo
He started off as a human rights lawyer in Nigeria
His life was set out for me because his dad was an attorney and had planned for him to do law and when he said he wanted to do art, his dad called him a ‘dreamer.’
It was hard to combine his 9-5 with art so he moved to Brooklyn because he wanted a different space where he would be free to explore his art options without having people look over his shoulder or monitor his success levels
He moved to New York in 2013
It was really tough at first because so many art galleries turned him down and didn’t feel like his type of art would appeal to their clientele
He had to wait 8 months before he could talk about his work with Beyonce; meaning she had shot the music video for Sorry 8 months before she released it as a song on the Lemonade album.
He met Beyonce and that was his first major opportunity. He got a call and then an email from her. At first, he thought someone was trying to scam him. After that, he got an official note from Beyonce’s company; Parkwood Entertainment and he had to sign a bunch of non-disclosure documents.
He then flew to Louisiana to meet with her and her people.
He goes on to detail his meet with her and said he spoke with her for about 30 minutes… She spoke to him about his YouTube page and his Instagram page and he was really awed at her knowledge of Yoruba mythology.
Every visual art of his has a story behind it.
He argues against calling Yoruba a ‘tribe.’
Picasso stole art from Africa, Laolu says.
He is not just a visual artist but he is also an audio artist.
He sings and Toolz makes a joke about her ‘spanx.’
He also makes Toolz rap…
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