Sola Olulode
Sola Olulode’s dreamy queer visions explore embodiments of British Black Womxn and Non-Binary Folx. Working with various mediums of natural dyeing, batik, wax, ink, pastel, oil bar, and impasto she develops textural canvases that explore the fluidities of identities. Drawing inspiration from lived experience, friends, and cultural reference points to centre Black Queer Womxn, Olulode emphasizes the integral need of representation and celebration of queer intimacies. Her utopian scenes celebrate relationships that transcend crude notions of queer sexuality, her figures exemplify the warm embrace of queer love, a temporal space to bathe in memories of intimacies abundant with scenes of profoundly deep tender connections. Envisaging a world reflective of the celebration of her own identities Olulode brings to life representation and visibility of Black Queer lived experiences. Her figures represent multifaceted complex individuals and the energy they hold in their bodies relishing in a boundless temporality of self-validation and joy.
Sola Olulode is a British-Nigerian London based artist who works across the medium of paint and textile influenced by Yoruba Adire textiles designs. She reinterprets images of Black Womxn expressed through diverse reflections of feminine energies. Olulode received a BA in Fine Art Painting from the University of Brighton in 2018. She has exhibited works in the UK and internationally. She has completed a number of residencies: von Goetz, Moving in the Bluish Light (2018); Lewisham Art House, Hold My Hand (2019); V.O Curations, Where the Ocean Meets the Beach (2020); and featured in the V&A’s In the Palm of Your Hands (2020). Various group exhibitions include: BBZ BLK BK: Alternative Graduate Show (2018); Twilights of the Idols (2020), Alice Black; Build Love Break Walls (2020), Shado Magazine; Blacklisted: An Indefinite Revolution (2020), Christie’s Education; and most recently When Shit Hits the Fan (2020).