INCONGRU MAGZINE

Visual Art

Present Within Oneself, 2026. Mixed media, 24 × 29 inches.

Present within oneself speaks to finding a moment of comfort and allowing oneself to feel without needing to explain everything. 

“Sometimes we do not need answers; we only need a moment to sit with ourselves.”

The work centers on self-acceptance—the understanding that perfection does not require being without flaws. Instead, it is about reaching a place of comfort within one’s own skin, embracing the body, emotions, imperfections, and everything that makes us human as a personal declaration of self-love.

One does not have to become someone else to feel whole, as there is profound beauty in simply being oneself. The piece invites viewers to see themselves in the canvas, reminding them that even in imperfection, loving who they are should be a source of joy rather than something that waits for external validation.

Detail view of figure resting on a surface, symbolizing comfort in one’s identity.

Olatunde Tolani Joseph is a Lagos-based contemporary artist and a graduate of Yaba College of Technology, where he earned his National Diploma and Higher National Diploma in Painting.

Rooted in a commitment to realism as a tool for emotional truth, his practice centers on documenting the human figure as a site of evidence where memory, identity, and inner feeling are recorded. Working primarily with acrylic and oil, he builds rich, textured, and layered surfaces through controlled brushwork. These tactile compositions capture quiet tension, subtle expressions, and transient states of being, bridging personal and collective narratives to create a profound visual archive of vulnerability, presence, and self-reflection.