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NiiLartey De Osu

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ABOUT/BIO

NiiLartey De Osu is a Neoillusionist artist and philosopher whose four-decade practice, spanning visual art, calligraphy, photography, film, music, fashion, and philosophy, is held together by a single concern: the use of material to reveal the immaterial, of medium as the tool by which meaning is extrapolated and, as Shakespeare put it, the mirror is held up to nature. Born in Ghana and reside in the United States, he founded the Way of Neoillusion as a holistic world-vision through art, and remains its Founder and originating artist-philosopher.

 

Grounded in the Akbarian metaphysics of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, the Greatest Master, his work draws on tajalli (divine self-disclosure), barzakh (the threshold between worlds), wahdat al-wujud (the oneness of being), and al-Insan al-Kamil (the Complete Human), and returns across every discipline to the Icon: the face that captures the expression of the moment in its infinite, subtle differentiations, its Multiple Perspective Fragmentations. His muse is not one woman, or two, or three; his muse is Life itself. Signature figures and works include the Neoharlequin (the spirit of the age, straddling that which is passing and that which is transpiring), The Twelve Gates of Ink, Democracy Unravelling, and Facing the New York Times, and he is the originator of the Celebrititis diagnosis at the heart of the Neoillusion Initiative's ongoing cultural critique.

 

The same conviction governs the cloth. Raised in Accra by a cosmopolitan mother and dressed throughout his youth in garments made to his measure, he came to the United States understanding clothing as a personal experience and as an imperative for unabridged expression, and, watching the dandyism that rose through the pop and rock scene of the era, he coined Neodandi: neo for the ever birthing of the new, dandy for high style, naming the person who is always moving, always evolving in appearance, always originating the trend rather than following it. Launched in 2003, the Neodandi House of Couture built the exoskeletal design philosophy he carries into his current work, an inside-out construction of exposed seam and deconstructed shape in which the garment is draped wet upon the body, then pinned and stitched fold by fold, so that the piece is made for one person and no other. Self-taught, and working always as a painter alongside the atelier, he makes amorous clothing that critics have set beside Comme des Garçons, Alexander McQueen, and Issey Miyake, and he treats the collection as he treats the canvas: not only as a statement but as an immediate channel to address what faces our societies and the human family as a whole. As he puts it, your inner vision is your outer exhibition, and who knows what we might find when we are truly able to be ourselves.

 

His work has been exhibited across Raleigh, Seattle, and New York from 1990 to the present. In 2017 he was selected from more than four hundred international open-call submissions for The Times at The FLAG Art Foundation (545 West 25th Street, New York), a group exhibition of over eighty artists that included Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Gober, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Lorraine O'Grady, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Gran Fury; his work was named by Roberta Smith in her New York Times column What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week (August 3, 2017). Neodandi has been covered by W Magazine, Surface Magazine, Fault Magazine, Women's Wear Daily, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and the Los Angeles Times across two decades of runway presentations in Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York.

RESUME/CV


NEOILLUSION
AND PRACTICE

  • Founder and originating artist-philosopher of the Neoillusion Initiative, a philosophy, artistic practice, and way of being synthesizing the Akbarian metaphysics of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi with contemporary cultural critique. 

  • Key works include Democracy Unravelling, Facing the New York Times, The Twelve Gates of Ink, and the Neoharlequin figure

  • Originator of the Celebrititis diagnosis at the heart of the Initiative's ongoing cultural critique

  • Co-founder, Neoillusion Ink Gallery; inaugural exhibition with Master RedSquare, Black Ink - Breath of the Spirit 2026

  • Co-Editor, Samvega Magazine, a luxury avant-garde art and lifestyle publication

  • Founder, Media Group 23 (2015): short films, fashion films, music videos, and art films

  • Founder, Neodandi House of Couture 2004

  • Composer; current project Yaätzin, crossing orchestral and electronic instrumentation from classical to hip-hop, Asian and Middle Eastern forms, incorporating popular media, cable news, and everyday sound

  • In development: feature film, "I Still Love You", "Heaven is a Woman", 

     

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES

2015-Present

  • "Jacob's Ladder - Life is Calligraphy" film , Neoillusion Ink Gallery, 2026

  • ​"Neoillusionist Heart Sutra" film, Neoillusion Ink Gallery, 2026

  • NY Fashion Week FW19, Fashion Show, 89 Crosby St, New York, NY, 2019

  • Facing the New York Times: 21st Century Icons, ongoing project, New York, NY, 2015 to Present

  • “The Times,” Group Exhibition, The FLAG Art Foundation, 545 W 25th Street, New York, NY, June 1 to August 11, 2017. More than 80 artists including Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Gober, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Lorraine O’Grady, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Gran Fury. Selected through FLAG’s worldwide open call, which drew over 400 submissions; exhibited a large calligraphic head rendered on the newspaper’s Women’s March coverage

  • Solo Exhibition, X Contemporary Art Fair, Miami Art Week, Miami, FL, 2017

  • “Billboard 21st Century Icons,” Solo Exhibition, 1 Art Space, New York, NY, 2017

  • “One Day Out of Life,” music video for The Veldt, directed and produced by De Osu, international release, 2017

  • “SS Utopia,” music video for LEAR, New York, NY, 2016
     

2010-2013

  • NY Fashion Week SS14, Fashion Show, Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY, 2013

  • “Kensho: The Way of Neodandi,” Fashion Show, Bertrand Delacroix Gallery, New York, NY, 2013

  • NY Fashion Week FW13, Fashion Show, En Japanese Brasserie, New York, NY, 2013

  • NY Fashion Week SS13, Fashion Show, Stollway, New York, NY, 2012

  • “Summer Show III,” Fashion Show, Friesen Abmeyer Gallery, Seattle, WA, 2012

  • Collaboration with BoConcept, Fashion Show, Bellevue, WA, 2012

  • “Summer Show II,” Fashion Show, 1927 Events, Seattle, WA, 2012

  • “Summer Show I,” Fashion Show, Pnk Lounge, Seattle, WA, 2012

  • “TSAR,” Fashion Performance, Bellevue Square, Bellevue, WA, 2011

  • Group Fashion Show, Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA, 2010

  • “Taqwacore,” Fashion Show, Sundance Film Festival, 2010
     

2003-2009

  • Two-Month Series of Weekly Fashion Vignettes, Neodandi Store, Seattle, WA, 2009

  • “Off the Wall,” Fashion Show, Neodandi Store, Seattle, WA, 2009

  • “Billie Jean is Not My Lover,” Fashion Show, Ligne Roset, Seattle, WA, 2009

  • Flagship Neodandi Store opens, Seattle, WA, 2009

  • Fashion Show, Musa Design Gallery, Seattle, WA, 2007

  • “The Art Wall,” Solo Art Show-Happening, Canvas Gallery, Seattle, WA, 2007

  • Live Dress Design, 5th Avenue Theater, Seattle, WA, 2007

  • LA Fashion Week, Viceroy Hotel, Los Angeles, CA, 2005

  • Designs for Earth, Wind & Fire, American Music Awards, Los Angeles, CA, 2005

  • Designs for Earth, Wind & Fire, 25th Anniversary BET Awards, Los Angeles, CA, 2005

  • “For Your Eyes Only,” Fashion Show, Ibiza Dinner Club, Seattle, WA, 2005

  • “All Tomorrow’s Muses,” Fashion Show, Trinity Nightclub, Seattle, WA, 2005

  • “Annual Chocolate Fashion Show,” New York, NY, 2005

  • Chocolate lingerie created with Sue McCown, Tyra Banks Show, New York, NY, 2005

  • American Heart Association Charity: gown designed for auction, purchased by Ana Laslow, Seattle, WA, 2004

  • “Siberian Nights,” Fashion Show, Seattle, WA, 2004

  • “Ode to Icarus,” Five-Hour Outdoor and Indoor Opera based on the Golden Mean, Pioneer Square, Seattle, WA, 2003
     

1990-2001

  • “Pelican Cries Seraphim,” Solo Exhibition, The Last Supper Club, Seattle, WA, 2001

  • Art Therapy Project: commissioned by Darren and Lynn Smith to paint their daughter Megan, undergoing treatment for leukemia, Seattle, WA, 1999

  • Solo Exhibition, Vesica Piscis Gallery, Pioneer Square, Seattle, WA, 1998

  • Founded Odeum Gallery, in association with The Last Supper Club, Seattle, WA, 1998

  • Bar Top Frieze, commissioned bar-top painting, The Last Supper Club, Seattle, WA, 1998

  • “The Sat,” Outdoor Performance Installation on sacred geometry and the nine muses, Seattle, WA, 1997

  • “Cassandra: Vision Song of Dance, a Romance,” Theater Performance, Seattle, WA, 1996

  • “Lucifer Unbound,” Theater Performance, Weathered Wall Club, Seattle, WA, 1995

  • Solo Exhibition, Weathered Wall Club, Seattle, WA, 1995

  • Solo Exhibition, Weathered Wall Club, Seattle, WA, 1994

  • “Faust to Faust,” Theater Performance, Easy Street Nightclub, Raleigh, NC, 1991

  • Group Show by invitation of Curator Denise Dickens, City Gallery of Contemporary Art, Raleigh, NC, 1991

  • “Proposition of the Void,” Theater Performance, Easy Street Nightclub, Raleigh, NC, 1991

  • Solo Exhibition, Easy Street Nightclub, Raleigh, NC, 1991

  • “What is Bread,” Theater Performance, Fallout Shelter, Raleigh, NC, 1990

     

PUBLICATIONS

2019

  • The Impression by CFDA, Fashion Week Feature, New York, NY, 2019

  • Fashion Week Online, Fashion Week Feature, New York, NY, 2019

  • Livingly, Fashion Week Feature, New York, NY, 2019

  • Hauterly, Fashion Week Feature, New York, NY, 2019

  • Picomoco, Fashion Week Feature, Japan and international, 2019

  • Kaixian.tv, Fashion Week Feature, China and international, 2019

  • Fashion Maniac, RiscoLee, Daniel Plus Lauren, MySocialMate, Instagub, and Imglory, Fashion Week Features, 2019

2017

  • Roberta Smith, “What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week,” The New York Times, August 3, 2017. Smith, then the Times’ senior art critic, praised “The Times” at The FLAG Art Foundation and named De Osu among the handful of artists singled out from the more than 80 on view

  • ArtNews, “‘The Times’ at FLAG Art Foundation,” New York, NY, 2017

  • Paper Magazine, “11 Must See Art Shows Opening This Week,” New York, NY, 2017

  • Vice, “81 Artists Explore the Newspaper as Art Object,” international, 2017

  • Bedford + Bowery, “A Sign of The Times,” New York, NY, 2017

  • Art Rabbit, “The Times,” New York, NY, 2017

  • The China Press, “New York Theme Exhibition, Asian Philosophy Expression,” international, 2017

  • World Journal, “More Chinese Than Chinese: Ghanaian Artist Calligraphy Exhibition,” international, 2017

  • Huffington Post, “The Veldt’s Sonic Revolution,” international, 2017

  • Louder Than War, “Watch This! The Veldt Premiere,” Manchester, UK, 2017
     

2012-2013

  • Wall Street Journal, Fashion Week Street Style Feature, New York, NY, 2012

  • Fault Magazine, Fault Favorites Issue 14, London, UK, 2013

  • YRB Magazine, Special Show Coverage Feature, New York, NY, 2013

  • Vigore Magazine, Company and Designer Profile, New York, NY, 2013

  • Estero Magazine, Luxury Fashion Feature, Salt Lake City, UT, 2012

  • Style and the Start Up, Designer Profile, New York, NY, 2012 and 2013

  • Additional 2012 and 2013 Fashion Week features: Joonbug, Digital Gent, Malinda Knowles, Qui Joacin Video, Now You Know Events, Lumiere Magazine, On Deck With Lucy, S Cubed Productions, Spades and Silk, Audrey Allure, What’s Really Good, John Simon Daily, Guest of a Guest, Manifesto Part 2, Eco-Chick, Socially Superlative, Fashion News Life, Fully Booked, and Black & Blonde
     

2005-2010

  • Seattle Weekly, Cover Story, Seattle, WA, 2010

  • Los Angeles Times, feature on the Fidel Collection, 2010 

  • Seattle Magazine, “Off the Wall” Show Coverage, Seattle, WA, 2009

  • Seattle Met Magazine, Fashion Feature, Seattle, WA, 2009

  • Men’s Examiner, Men’s Fashion Feature, Seattle, WA, 2009

  • D. Parvaz, “Seattle designer revs up with fast-forward, curve-hugging garments,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 27, 2005. Coverage of a three-part Neodandi show of roughly 100 pieces at Trinity Nightclub, Pioneer Square, including the Transfigured Denim Collection

  • Hsia-Ching Chou, “On Food: Benefit Show Celebrates Chocolate in Real Style,” Cover Story, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle, WA, 2005

  • WWD, Fashion Feature, New York, NY, 2005

  • California Apparel News, Fashion Week Feature, Los Angeles, CA, 2005

  • Surface Magazine, feature on Neodandi’s Aristocratic Denim, 2005

  • Seattle Magazine, fashion feature on menswear, Seattle, WA, 2005

  • Music and Fashion Magazine, Company Profile, six-page spread, Seattle, WA, 2005
     

1990-1995

  • Art Bent of Seattle Magazine, Interview with Niilartey De Osu, Seattle, WA, April 1995

  • Vanashee Jhaveri, “Niilartey De Osu,” Moda Fashion and Lifestyle Magazine, Seattle, WA, November 1993

  • Rubel Romero, “Wake Up,” review of the solo exhibition at Easy Street, Spectator, Raleigh, NC, May 1, 1991

  • Billy Warden, “A Revolution in Raleigh’s Art World,” review of “What is Bread,” The News & Observer, Raleigh, NC, December 11, 1990

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