Abayomi Barber’s breakthrough as an artist came in 1952, when he won the Elder Dempster Lines Silver Cup at the All Nigeria Festival of the Arts, setting him apart as a visionary voice early in his career.

In the 1950s, he worked as a graphic artist, producing book covers, advertisements, and comic illustrations that sharpened his technical skill. From 1960 to 1962, he trained in London, assisting sculptor Oscar Nemon on five busts of Winston Churchill and gaining further experience at the British Museum.

Barber returned to Nigeria in 1971 and joined the University of Lagos as an arts fellow. Two years later, he opened an informal training school that quietly shaped a generation of Nigerian artists. His body of work includes life-sized busts of Murtala Mohammed and Oba Adesoji Aderemi, and a striking oil portrait of President Shehu Shagari.