Sola Olulode was born into a family of Nigerian descent, in Brixton, London, England in 1996, graduating in Fine Art Painting from the University of Brighton in 2018. Drawing inspiration from her Nigerian heritage, Olulode's work delves into the representation of Black bodies with gender-neutral and androgynous facial features, exploring images related to LGBT nightlife, music, and dance.
Artist Sola Olulode was born in Brixton, London, England in 1996 into a family of Nigerian descent. From a young age, her parents exposed her to art galleries and museums, while her grandmother specialised in artisan techniques, including creating mosaics. Olulode completed her BA in Fine Art Painting at the University of Brighton in 2018. In the same year, she was shortlisted for the Evening Standard Art Prize before having the opportunity to be an artist in residence at the Post Institute in London for two months as part of the inaugural 'Frieze Week Residency'.
Olulode's paintings are concerned with themes of unity, intimacy, and womanhood. Informed by her Nigerian heritage, her work delves into the representation of Black bodies with gender-neutral and androgynous facial features, exploring images related to LGBT nightlife, music, and dance. Through depicting everyday life occurrences, she creates intimate interactions between figures engaged in dancing, cuddling, or eating. By capturing these private moments, Olulode invites viewers to take part ‘in the celebration of the scene. Too often these relationships are forced into being hidden as if there is something to be ashamed of. I want to normalise seeing images of queer people being affectionate’ (It’s Nice That).
Using expressive brushstrokes, Olulode employs a range of media, including natural dyes, wax, ink, pastel, and impasto, to create textured canvases that explore the fluidity of identities. Drawing inspiration from personal experiences, friendships, and cultural influences, she emphasises the importance of representation and celebration of queer intimacies, presenting utopian scenes that go beyond simplistic notions of queer sexuality. Through deep indigo blues, yellows, and brown backgrounds, her figures convey a sense of unity that, according to the artist, represent the ultimate celebration of self-awareness (Dateagle Art). As noted by curator Aindrea Emelife, historically there has been a lack of representation of Black figures, particularly a ‘restful’ representation of the Black experience: Olulode addresses this imbalance by creating works that serve as 'a testament to the aspects of the Black experience that aren’t always portrayed but need celebration and have always been there’ (Avant Arte). Olulode's work incorporates artistic references that can be traced back to Nike Okundaye, a prominent Nigerian batik and adire textile designer. In 2021, Olulode visited Okundaye's gallery in Lagos and participated in a workshop where traditional fabric dyers taught her the process of creating adire, a Yoruba traditional pattern-making technique used to convey specific narratives. Olulode experimented with this technique in her painting Safety (2019), which portrayed two Black womxn peacefully sleeping together under duvet covers. This artwork was followed by a monoprint of a similar scene, inspiring a small series centered around the same couple. The artist questioned how a painting of a Black womxn peacefully sleeping could be considered radical, noting that the images typically associated with Black womxn depict them engaged in work, activism, or caregiving, but never 'just being’ (It’s Nice That).
In 2018, Olulode held her first solo exhibition, titled Moving in the Bluish Light, at the Van Goetz Gallery in London. In 2020, she served as an artist in residence at V.O. Curations in London, where she focused on exploring representations of QTIBPOC (Queer Trans Intersex Black People & People of Colour) and romance. The resulting exhibition, Where the Ocean Meets the Beach, showcased a new series of paintings that incorporated narratives of Black queer women, emphasising the complexities of romantic relationships and drawing directly from Olulode's own experiences. Delving into various aspects of love, Olulode explored the intimacy and complicity of dating, as well as the impassioned ‘honeymoon’ phase. The exhibition's title was inspired by a poem called The Sea by British artist Travis Alabanza, which expressed a sense of boundlessness and gender fluidity akin to point where the ocean meets the beach. In 2020, Olulode participated in the group exhibition Twilight of the Idols at Alice Black Gallery in London. Additionally, she showcased her Bed Series at the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London in 2022. The compositions in the series featured two queer figures together in a bed, capturing intimate and peaceful moments. For this body of work, instead of traditional stretched canvases, she opted to hang and stretch her paintings between two wooden rods, resembling a bed frame. This added another layer of depth and perspective to the pieces, lending them a more sculptural and conceptual quality. Through this approach, Olulode aimed to highlight the textile itself and challenge Western notions of what constitutes fine art (Berntson Bhattacharjee). In order to create a more immersive experience for viewers and enhance the engagement with her works, Olulode placed an actual bed at the center of the exhibition booth, adorned with adiretextiles. Olulode's work is not currently represented in UK public collections.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Sola Olulode]
Publications related to [Sola Olulode] in the Ben Uri Library