Toledo Artist
ODES ROBERTS SR .
Odes Roberts Toledo artist creating narrative oil, acrylic, and digital art that centers Black heritage and everyday life.
Represented by Obsidian People.
Odes Roberts Sr. Toledo artist and painter of Black history and everyday beauty. Born September 17, 1955 in Toledo, Ohio, Odes works in oil and acrylic, creating narrative paintings that honor African and African American heritage. His mentors included Florence Smith, John Wheeler, LeMaxie Glover, and J. Michael Wilson, shaping a lifelong practice rooted in craft, culture, and community. Across three decades, Odes has exhibited in major shows with five solo exhibitions.
“That’s the beauty of art. You never learn enough.” — Odes Roberts
His work has appeared at the Toledo Museum of Art, the University of Toledo, regional libraries and galleries in Toledo and Detroit, and in digital features like Indie Incognito Magazine. HeA signature project, Africa to America, began in the 1990s as a research-driven series tracing Black lineage from ancient kingdoms to contemporary life. The paintings reference figures like the first Pharaohs of Egypt, Mansa Musa, Rosa Parks, and Ida B. Wells, connecting history to present-day identity. The work teaches without preaching, turning brushstrokes into lessons our schools tend to skip.
Black heritage, everyday life, joy, resistance, lineage, spirituality, contemporary digital expression
In the 2000s, Odes opened OROBS Fine Art, a gallery that gave new Toledo artists a place to show work across mediums. Later, in partnership with The Truth Gallery, he spotlighted handcrafted African masks and sculptures, bringing more than 5,000 cultural objects to local audiences and expanding public understanding of African art.
“I paint to remember. Every face, every color, every gesture is a note from our past and a signal to our future.”
Today, Odes continues to paint stories that move. Smooth jazz on, bourbon neat, bandana tied, he builds color, form, and rhythm until a figure steps forward and the room gets quiet. His purpose is simple. Make work that looks good, speaks truth, and sends people home thinking. He paints in oil and acrylic, and he’s added digital art to expand how these stories live online and in print.” Highlighted Artist for Unbounded Artists Development Community
“I’m expressing the beauty of who we are and where we come from.”