The Artist You're Sleeping On
2024-08-31 · 5 min read
Kehinde Wiley gets the attention, but Toyin Ojih Odutola is making some of the most intellectually ambitious figurative art in the world right now. The Nigerian-American artist creates densely layered works in pen, charcoal, and pastel that depict fictional aristocratic figures in imagined postcolonial societies.
Her 2017 exhibition at the Whitney Museum presented two fictional Nigerian noble families through a series of portraits and landscapes. The technical mastery is staggering: her pen-and-ink technique creates skin textures so rich they appear almost photographic at a distance.
What distinguishes Ojih Odutola is the worldbuilding. Each exhibition tells a story that unfolds across multiple works, inviting viewers to piece together narrative from visual clues.
Her use of darkness and blackness in her work is revolutionary. Skin in her portraits is a layered topography of blues, purples, browns, and blacks that gives each figure luminosity and depth.
Ojih Odutola career trajectory has been remarkable. Represented by Jack Shainman Gallery in New York, she is already a significant figure in contemporary art.
Visit https://www.jackshainman.com/artists/toyin-ojih-odutola for a comprehensive portfolio and exhibition history.
Ojih Odutola is the artist you need to know because she is building something that transcends individual pieces: a complete artistic universe that challenges how we think about identity, power, and representation.
