Akindele Akerejah (theDopamineClinic)

Akindele Ikhide Akerejah called simply Délé (with the Romantic “e” ) is an autodidict mixed-media artist. Prior to receiving housing in 2012, he was homeless, an urban refugee, fighting street level homelessness, mental illness, poverty, and addiction. While working on developing the Dopamine Clinic, an arts & leisure firms, Dèlè had been evicted from Emery House, a work-bed shelter, because they didn't consider it "real" employment. according to Staff-Management…After receiving housing, Dèlè transformed his newly obtained apartment into the visual arts studio now formally known as …The Dopamine Clinic. He previously worked as a vendor/artist with Street Sense Media () #BeautifulVolpeVendor#455 😘, a street newspaper in Washington, DC which focuses on elevating the voices of people experiencing homelessness. Recently Dèlè signed on as a studio aide and workshop instructor with Art Enables, “an Art Gallery and Vocational Arts program dedicated to creating opportunities for artists with disabilities to make, market, and earn income from their original and compelling artwork.”

Dèlè had been living on the frigid streets with a band of fellow homeless people. The situation was tense and survival was feral. He found that his sanity had eroded to the point where he broke a window just to be arrested and experience a furlough from the streets indoors. Dèlè was hospitalized at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital where he was encouraged to take art therapy with artist Masako Ohashi (2017), There he met a benevolent social worker by the name of Ms. Christine Litwa (2012) whose persistent efforts secured a housing voucher for him. Thanks to her, he is no longer a homeless person. Dèlè has been creating essays, collages, pastels, drawings, artist books, and mixed-media paintings as well as writing original poems, stories, and essays ever since. While overseeing and promoting art shows with the Dopamine Clinic, Délé has participated in shows at the Roxanne Goldberg 201 Gallery with George Washington University, RAW: Artists' DC (Daraja Asili) and New York City pop-up galleries. In 2019 he began a working relationship with the government of the District of Columbia by being contracted for painting at high profile official events. Dèlè still maintains his relationship with Street Sense Media and can be called upon to teach workshops to working vendors, and has had many articles published about his artwork and the work of the Dopamine Clinic…

His primary influences are the people, places, and things that have been interspersed throughout his life and work also alludes to his boyhood/teenage pastime of playing with action figures. He doesn't adhere to any particular rules and deliberately employs ignorance of convention and academia in his technique, because in his words, "Art is the only thing I can move freely in within this regimented world.”…

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Akindele Ikhide Akerejah