TP4STYLE at – At a recent exhibition at W3 gallery in London, Temitope Ogunseitan (TP4STYLE) presented three works—Dudu, Okunrin, and Orisa—using fruit, roses, and floral motifs to trace heritage, gender, and the everyday struggle to belong in a new country.
By the time you’re standing in front of Temitope Ogunseitan’s work at W3 gallery in London, the question starts to feel personal: how do you carry your heritage without it trapping you? How do you stay faithful to what came before while building a life that fits the country you now call home?
His art, known as TP4STYLE, is built around that tension. At this recent exhibition, Ogunseitan presented three works, each one anchored in West African memory and shaped by the experience of living in the UK.
In ‘Dudu’, he celebrates the strength of black womanhood while honouring his West African heritage. The composition is surrounded by fruits, and the image doesn’t just gesture toward nourishment—it insists on vitality. The fruits also stand in for cultural heritage passed down through generations. “often from mothers to their sons and daughters.” There’s a second layer. too: the fruits are freshly cut and harvested. and that brief freshness pulls the viewer toward Dutch vanitas paintings. where fruit serves as a reminder that life is fleeting. Fruit rots. The lesson is blunt, almost physical.
But Ogunseitan’s choice to render it in TP4STYLE doesn’t make the message mournful. It’s more like a quiet, urgent nudge. If life passes so quickly, the work asks what it means to waste it on things that don’t make you happy—and what it costs to only realise too late.
That sense of urgency shifts when you move to ‘Okunrin’. Ogunseitan draws you in with the sight of a muscular man with a rose for his head. The title, ‘Okunrin’, means man in Yoruba, and it opens up a conversation that now plays out worldwide: what does it mean to be a man or a woman today?
The works arrive against the backdrop of a widely discussed “crisis of masculinity. ” with men unsure of their place in a world that is slowly edging toward equality. Yet Ogunseitan also places another force in the room—the toxic pushback from the ‘manosphere’. which promotes an outdated view of masculine dominance and is presented here as a threat to women worldwide.
In ‘Okunrin’, the counter-image is unmistakable. Masculinity, the work insists, can come from being tender and caring. It can live in the muscles, not as intimidation, but as the power to help and protect others.
Flowers return as more than decoration, and the exhibition begins to feel like a deliberate braid. The floral motif resonates because flowers are long tied to femininity. But reproduction biology isn’t the point here—social norms are. The work gestures toward that asymmetry: men present women with flowers in romantic overtures. but the other way around is less common. Meeting another man with flowers is also rarely portrayed as expected. The implication lands with the same force as the fruit’s brief life: masculinity can be about smelling the roses and embracing the beauty of the natural world.
That motif carries directly into the final work. the woman in the striking yellow suit with a flower over her ear and another on her lapel. The title is ‘Orisa’, and it references West African deities. Here, Ogunseitan points specifically to Osun, associated with fertility. Osun is described as a giver of life. and in the exhibition’s visual rhythm. she sits neatly between the other two works—like a bridge between ideas about strength. care. and who gets to define themselves.
Osun is female, but Ogunseitan also points to something wider: many orisa sit outside Western gender norms. In ‘Orisa’, that becomes a quiet invitation to embrace all people, however they choose to present themselves.
The three works don’t feel like separate statements. They circle the same question through different symbols—fruit. rose. flowers. and colour—then connect back to Ogunseitan’s wider practice. Beyond painting in the TP4STYLE mode, his work is described as spanning photography, sustainable fashion, textile design, and illustration.
Across that interdisciplinary approach, the centre of gravity remains the same: embracing and celebrating different identities, combining his West African heritage with his experience living in the UK, and building a unique style that refuses to choose between belonging and becoming.
More information about the artist may be found on his Instagram and website.
TP4STYLE Temitope Ogunseitan W3 gallery London Dudu Okunrin Orisa West African heritage Yoruba Osun black womanhood masculinity crisis manosphere sustainable fashion textile design illustration photography cultural identity migration diaspora art
So it’s like fruit=heritage? Kinda random but I guess I get it.
This sounds deep but also kinda confusing. Like why roses? Is it about some specific UK thing or just West Africa memory? I’m probably missing it.
Wait, TP4STYLE is a person and also like a style? I thought “TP4STYLE” was an app or something lol. Fruit rotting being vanitas is cool, but the headline makes it sound like they’re bringing memories to London like it’s a service.
Honestly I don’t know if the fruits are supposed to be “fresh” or “fleeting” because the article says both. Like mothers to sons and daughters and also the fruit rots?? Doesn’t that make it sad instead of a “nudge”? Also London art galleries always pick the most complicated meaning for everything.