O.O.
Did you have an art practice as a child?

P.F.
Yes. I have always wanted to be an artist. From childhood, even though my mum didn't support it! She was totally against it then, but I'd been drawing these comic book characters in school. I had a friend - we would draw together. My mum didn't want me to go into that. Like every other Nigerian parent, [she] would want her son to be a doctor, a lawyer - something like that. So she would burn my art materials, my sketchbooks.
But I had quite a lot of practice while I was a child, so that inspired me to go further into studying fine art. It got to a point where she had no choice. Just 'leave me, let me do my thing.' And I can say she's my number one fan now. 

O.O.
It's interesting that you mention drawing comics as a child. I noticed that in some of the photos that you shared from your sketchbook that the drawings are accompanied with text.

P.F.
Mm.

O.O.
What place do writing and text occupy in your work?

P.F.
I didn't mention earlier that I love writing too. Last year, I was big on writing poems, but I stopped at a point, just to focus on my art. I even have an Instagram page for my poems, but I stopped posting. But I am still writing! I just write random stuff, stuff that comes to my mind. Social commentary. And that is really one of the things that inspired my current project, my research-based project.
Writing is also a way I express myself. Someone might see an artwork and not be able to relate with it directly, so sometimes I accompany the artwork by writing something about it, something in relation to it, so you can get the full context of what it's about. That's what writing is to me.

O.O.
That's the experience I had looking at your work. I noticed... It's two things. It's engaging, and I also experience it as soothing to see a piece of visual art accompanied by a text. I was thinking about why that is, and I think it's because I'm experiencing something that engages both the mind and the body.

P.F.
Mhm! Yeah.

O.O.
The visual aspect, to me, engages the body and then the writing engages my mind. I wonder what you think about that?

P.F.
My writing is inspired by the work in most cases. So you are looking at the work - you also read the text. Sometimes it's not really a full body of text. It might be a quote. It lets you have this moment of reflection. It gives you a moment to think about, okay, so what is this work actually saying? That's why I write.
I might just write random quotes. Sometimes, I write extensively, comprehensively, about the work. So it feeds the eyes - the body - and it also feeds the mind. I think it's something most artists should learn to do. Some works are actually really great, but then they're not really something that I can interpret directly. I see that some [artists], after posting their work, will write about it. Some might even commission a poet or collaborate with a poet to write about the work for them. That's something I think we should encourage.

O.O.
How do you think about social conditions in your work? An alternative phrasing is, are there social conditions that you feel either now or you've felt in the past have been limiting to your practice?

P.F.
The social condition around my work is something that artists face at the early stage of their career. I'm still in the early stage of this career. [Firstly,] I would say family, and secondly, the society at large - the community you are in. They play a crucial role in how you go about your work and the kinds of work you make sometimes. I had limitations then: my mum when I was a child. And even after school, I discovered that the community I was in did not really support art. In Nigeria, there is this general thing that it's only the rich that buy art. So that's also a social condition on its own. And that is basically why I am based in Lagos because I feel that this it's where it is happening. I'm from Ogun State, and the kinds of artists you see in Ogun State are more like roadside artists. Mostly roadside artists. You can only get a few professional artists. So the social environment over there is not really conducive for an artist, and that was why I had to move to Lagos.
And, I mean, I've been doing well since I came. I've been exploring. I have a mentor at the moment. His name is Duke Asidere. He has opened my eyes to things that affect my art practice. In context, some social conditions have been limitations, but I think I'm getting over them. I am trying my best to also put it out there, to create awareness about something related to this. 

O.O.
Where in Ogun did you grow up?

P.F.
I grew up in Shagamu. I was born in Shagamu, I schooled in Ifo.

O.O.
What materials are most interesting to you right now?

P.F.
I love acrylic. That's my main medium. But I've been exploring other materials - found objects, like cans, and that is the main material that interests me right now - although I haven't been making much of my sustainable art because I am working on a project. Cans and also other discarded material like textile waste and plastic covers.

O.O.
You used, in one of your pieces, part of a discarded AC as a frame. Can you talk about that?

P.F.
So that piece is from a series I worked on with a friend [Michael Omotosho]. It's talking about adulthood. I don't know if you noticed a round head, big eyes. That is my friend's painting, and then I brought in the idea of using something unconventional as a frame for the work. So that's what gave birth to that one.
The work basically talks about adulthood, and that is - I've forgotten the title, actually. It's 'the face of being an adult,' something like that.

O.O.
Do you often collaborate with friends?

P.F.
I haven't been doing that on a broad scale, but I'm looking into working with a lot of artists this year, especially on what I'm working on at the moment. I will be collaborating with performance artists, poets, spoken word artists, painters, sculptors, writers, and other creatives that I know I can work with. But I haven't been collaborating much - just a few of my friends, who are also artists. But this year, I will work more on that.

O.O.
For the research project that you mentioned?

P.F.
Yes. Yes.

O.O.
I would like to hear more about that. Anything you want to share.

P.F.
The research project is themed 'Project Red Boy.' That's the theme. It's talking about the misfit identity, those that are considered... those that see themselves as not really fitting social norms. Those who people think are not conforming. It was supposed to be a series of paintings, but an idea just parked in my mind that, okay, why can't I just make this something bigger? Something more like a movement. I mean, to create an awareness.
I did a survey last month. It was an anonymous survey - you didn't need to put in any of your personal details, just tell me your story - and I found out that we actually have people who think that they don't fit in to the society they are in. Especially students. People who think they are weird - people whose friends or other people actually call weird because they are not thinking the same way a normal person would think. They think outside the box. They behave in a certain way, they dress in a particular way. They just do things on their own. So, that's what the research project is about, and as I mentioned earlier, I will be collaborating with various artists on it, just to explore the misfit identity, to give a voice to them. So that's basically what it is.

O.O.
Yeah, beautiful. That's something that you're planning to initiate and bring forth this year?

P.F.
Yes.


View some of Precious' work. This interview was conducted on March 14th, 2026 & edited by Oritsemughone Ogbemi the next day.