Tabi CrentsilSelected paintings and ongoing series exploring figuration, memory, symbolism, and contemporary African experience.
This series explores a stylized and symbolic approach to figuration. Rendered in muted ash tones with restrained bursts of colour, the figures extend beyond the canvas, suggesting that creativity knows no limits. These works focus less on likeness and more on what the human form can communicate through silence, gesture, and atmosphere.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · May 2025
Reflections explores the quiet burden of choice and the emotional distance we often place between ourselves and the answers we seek. The figure’s posture suggests fatigue, contemplation, and an inward struggle between awareness and understanding. Through distortion, gesture, and subdued symbolism, the work considers the human tendency to search endlessly outward while overlooking truths already within reach.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · May 2024
Red Ball reflects on ambition, pressure, and the quiet discipline required to pursue purpose. Positioned against a warm backdrop suggestive of wealth, desire, and aspiration, the figure appears both composed and burdened, holding the red sphere as a symbol of pursuit, responsibility, or possibility. Through elongated form, controlled posture, and textured abstraction, the work explores determination in the face of uncertainty and the psychological weight carried in moments of striving.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · June 2024
Shaded Thought captures a moment of inward retreat. The seated figure, isolated within blocks of muted colour, appears absorbed in a private emotional space where silence becomes presence rather than absence. The blue flower introduces a delicate counterpoint to the heaviness of posture and form, suggesting tenderness, memory, or emotional refuge. Balancing tension with calm restraint, the work reflects on the unseen weight carried beneath outward composure.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · May 2024
Business Executive draws from the visual language of trade, labour, and everyday survival. Surrounded by harvested fruit and empty containers awaiting use, the figure occupies a space between preparation and responsibility. Her backward glance introduces a sense of alertness, suggesting the constant negotiation between opportunity, pressure, and self-preservation. The work reflects on resilience within ordinary economic life, where dignity and endurance quietly shape daily existence.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · June 2024
Beyond reflects on the tension between curiosity and uncertainty. Seated in stillness, the figure holds a Rubik’s Cube, a familiar symbol of complexity, decision-making, and the human desire to bring order to confusion. Rather than presenting resolution, the work lingers in the space of contemplation, where answers remain possible but unfinished. The composition invites reflection on ambition, mental navigation, and the continuous search for meaning beyond immediate understanding.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · May 2024
10 Digits captures the awkward simplicity of two people beginning a connection. One figure holds a phone while the other leans into the exchange, turning an ordinary moment into something quietly significant. The painting reflects the uncertainty, curiosity, and unspoken expectations that often accompany first interactions. Through exaggerated form and expressive colour, the work draws attention to how modern relationships can begin with something as small as a shared contact.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · March 2024
Irresistible Offer centres on the quiet tension between restraint and desire. Seated beside a bowl of fruit, the figure appears caught in a moment of consideration rather than action, allowing the ordinary setting to carry psychological weight. The painting draws attention to how temptation often arrives subtly, through simple, familiar things that invite both attraction and hesitation. With its exaggerated proportions and warm tonal contrasts, the work reflects on human longing and the decisions shaped by impulse, curiosity, and self-control.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · May 2026
A Long Evening presents a quiet domestic moment shaped by fatigue, stillness, and personal space. Seated comfortably with a drink in hand, the figure appears suspended between rest and thought, occupying the slow hours that arrive after the demands of the day have passed. The interior setting, softened palette, and relaxed posture give the work a sense of familiarity, drawing attention to the unnoticed emotional atmosphere of ordinary evenings.
This series explores symbolic figuration through muted tones and fragmented form. Figures move beyond the canvas, reflecting creativity, presence, and emotional depth beyond physical limits. Rooted in silence and gesture, these works focus on atmosphere rather than likeness, using the human form as a language of feeling and memory.
4ft × 4ft · Acrylics on canvas · July 2025
Tomorrow Walks With Us portrays a group of children moving with shared direction and quiet determination. While two figures appear more clearly defined, the third remains partially unresolved, suggesting uncertainty, transition, or an identity still forming within the collective movement. Their forward motion creates a sense of purpose beyond the frame, as though they are drawn toward a destination shaped by hope, curiosity, and common intent. Through layered textures and overlapping forms, the work reflects on childhood, unity, and the early journey toward becoming.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · August 2025
Flower Boy portrays a child presenting a flower with unusual care and attention, turning a simple gesture into a moment of sincerity and emotional openness. The extended hands and delicate offering suggest innocence untouched by pretence, while the surrounding textures and layered marks create a space that feels reflective and intimate. Rather than focusing on narrative, the work invites attention to the purity of giving and the quiet emotional language often carried by children.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · August 2025
Unwavering reflects the enduring presence of heritage within everyday life. The figures move forward carrying both physical and cultural weight, suggesting responsibility, continuity, and the quiet resilience passed between generations. Their steady movement through the composition speaks not of resistance alone, but of persistence: the ability of tradition to remain present while adapting to changing times. Through layered textures and fluid forms, the work honours the strength found in carrying identity forward without surrendering its roots.
4ft × 4ft · Acrylics on canvas · August 2025
Traditions Not Diminishing reflects on the endurance of cultural memory across changing generations. The layered figures and fragmented forms suggest the presence of inherited identity, where customs, values, and shared histories continue to exist even as time alters their expression. Domestic objects within the composition serve as quiet markers of continuity, grounding the work in everyday life rather than ceremony alone. Through textured surfaces and overlapping presence, the painting speaks to traditions not as static relics, but as living practices carried forward through people, memory, and daily existence.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · August 2025
Strength captures the discipline of movement and the persistence required to continue despite resistance. The cyclist leans forward with purpose, balancing effort, direction, and control within an unstable terrain. Rather than focusing on competition or speed, the work reflects the quiet determination found in endurance itself. Loose palette knife application and layered textures intensify the sense of motion, allowing the figure to appear both grounded and constantly in transition.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · October 2025
Village Vibes reflects the closeness of communal life and the shared atmosphere that shapes everyday village experience. The clustered figures, traditional vessels, and layered surroundings suggest conversation, labour, memory, and coexistence unfolding within a familiar environment. Rather than focusing on a single narrative, the work gathers fragments of daily life into one connected space where identity is shaped collectively. Earthy textures and overlapping forms reinforce the sense of continuity between people, place, and tradition.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · January 2025
Just Move On portrays a woman moving with urgency toward an unfamiliar space beyond the world she has known. The cool blues and greys surrounding her suggest memory, routine, and emotional history, while the warmer tones ahead introduce uncertainty, change, and the possibility of transformation. Though responsibility remains tied to her movement, the figure does not pause or look back. The work reflects the difficult act of leaving behind familiar conditions in pursuit of something not yet understood, trusting movement itself as a form of survival and growth.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · August 2025
Mama’s Teacup reflects the quiet wisdom often passed down through care, experience, and everyday gestures. The vivid red cup contrasts with the cool greys and blues of the seated figure, creating a tension between warmth and restraint, emotion and reflection. Inspired by the idea that mothers often hand us things that appear intense in the moment yet reveal clarity and comfort over time, the work speaks to guidance, memory, and the lasting influence carried within ordinary acts of nurturing.
3ft × 3ft · Acrylics on canvas · May 2025
Between Sips and Silence reflects the emotional space that exists between rest and reflection. Seated with a cup in hand, the figure appears absorbed in a private moment where thought settles slowly rather than urgently. The contrast between warm earth tones and cool blues creates a tension between memory and calm, suggesting an interior world shaped by experience, solitude, and quiet observation. Rather than portraying loneliness, the work embraces stillness as a necessary pause within the rhythm of daily life.