Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1987 London, England

Other name/s: Olayinka 'Yinka' Ilori

Biography

Contemporary multi-disciplinary artist and designer Olayinka ‘Yinka’ Ilori was born to working-class Nigerian parents on a council estate in north London, England in April 1987. Growing up in a multicultural area on Essex Road in Islington, he attended the local St Jude and St Paul's Church of England Primary School. His father managed a B&Q store, and his mother was an events caterer. ‘“As a kid”’, he stated, ‘“I was just trying to know how to celebrate both of my cultures,” […]. He felt like he was living a double life. His parents moved from Nigeria in the 1980s, and in the UK family home, Ilori was immersed in his family’s native language and clothing, which were in vast contrast to the British Western ways he was navigating outside,’ (Ilori quoted in Burman, 2020). Ilori visited Nigeria for the first time when he was about 12 years old. There, he experienced an epiphany about the potential strength in blending his British and Nigerian identities and understood for what it means to be a British Nigerian. From 2006 to 2009, Ilori studied art and design at London Metropolitan University, specialising in furniture and product design.

Ilori’s practice is rooted in universally accessibility, humour, provocation, joy and positivity, with the aim of uniting and benefiting communities. Working with urban landscapes, Ilori transforms spaces to foster a community spirit. A whimsical approach to designing furniture and public spaces, along with the striking use of bright and vibrant colours, are consistent features of his stylistic expression. Ilori’s oeuvre is inspired by the vibrant colours and textures of his Nigerian heritage. The parables his parents taught him about love, respect, and loyalty resonated with him and continue to guide his practice. A Nigerian saying that Ilori finds particularly poignant states: ‘No matter how long the neck of a giraffe is, it still cannot see the future,’ (Ilori quotes in Burman, 2020). During his first trip to Nigeria, he also noticed that ‘“People were using old concrete blocks or tyres as seating, or previously worn fabrics for upholstery, […]. It was fascinating to see them using the everyday objects around them as part of designed objects,”’ (Ilori quoted in Treggiden, 2020). Moreover, while he was a student, he received an assignment to merge two discarded chairs into a single piece, which sparked an enthusiasm for repurposing items. His practice is also informed by childhood memories of the colourful attire his family and friends wore to house parties. The idea of unpredictability, the Nigerian approach to reuse, the student assignment and childhood memories all led him to incorporate bright colours and environmental thinking in his work and to adopt upcycling as a methodological approach.

Ilori’s career encompasses domestic and international exhibitions, design projects and collaborations. Since starting out in 2011, he has evolved from upcycling second-hand furniture, drawing on West African textiles for colour and design inspiration, to larger public works and installations. His oeuvre now includes architectural projects, interior design, graphic design, textiles, sculpture, and furniture. In 2015, Ilori established his eponymous design studio, assembling a team of colour-passionate architects and designers, taking on significant architectural and interior design projects. Adidas, Kvadrat, Lego, Meta, Nike, Pepsi, the Red Cross, SCP, and the NHS are some of his clients. Recent projects have included transforming a railway bridge underpass into Happy Street at Nine Elms in London (2019) with vivid murals; creating The Colour Palace (2019) at Dulwich Picture Gallery - a temporary pavilion celebrating the universal appeal of vibrant colours - and participating in Get Up Stand Up, a 2019 exhibition at Somerset House, commemorating 50 years of Black creativity in Britain. In 2020, he launched his own homeware brand Yinka Ilori. In 2022, he designed The Flamboyance of Flamingos, a playground in East London’s Parsloes Park and featured in a major solo exhibition at London’s Design Museum, showcasing his projects alongside his designing the first basketball court in Canary Wharf. In 2022 Ilori created a collection for the V&A Africa Fashion Exhibition Shop, comprising two prints he designed. The first, Ife, draws its name from the Yoruba word for love; the second, Owu, is inspired by a childhood recollection of his mother styling his sibling’s hair in the traditional Isi Owu manner.

Ilori has received several awards and honours for his work, including the Emerging Design Medal at the London Design Festival in 2020 and in 2021 he became a Member of the British Empire (MBE). Olayinka ‘Yinka’ Ilori lives and works in London. In the UK public domain, his works works are held in Canary Wharf’s collection of public art, the Jerwood Collection and the V&A.

Related books

Ben Channon, The Happy Design Toolkit: Architecture for Better Mental Wellbeing (London: RIBA Publications, 2022)
Dingle Price and Alex Gore, eds., Pricegore & Yinka Ilori: Dulwich Pavilion (Zurich: Park Books AG, 2021)
Erin McKeller, ‘Remembering in Colour: In Conversation with Artist/Designer Yinka Ilori’, Architectural Digest, Vol. 91, No. 1, 2021, pp. 118-127.
Jason Reynolds (with cover art by Yinka Ilori), For Every One (London: Knights Of Media, 2018)

Public collections

Related organisations

British Empire Society (member )
London Metropolitan University (student )

Selected exhibitions

Yinka Ilori: Parables for Happiness (solo exhibition), Design Museum, London (2022)
The Flamboyance of Flamingos (solo playground design), Parsloes Park, London (2022)
Knit! (group show), Kvadrat, Copenhagen (2020)
The Colour Palace (solo temporary pavilion design), Dulwich Picture Gallery, London (2019)
Get Up Stand Up (group show), Somerset House, London (2019)
If Chairs Could Talk (solo exhibition), The Shop At Bluebird, London (2015)
Making Africa (group show), Vitra Design Museum, Basel/Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2015)
This is Where It Started (solo exhibition), The Whitespace Gallery, Lagos (2014)
Africa Calling, Africa Utopia (group show), Southbank Centre, London (2014)
It Started With a Parable (solo exhibition), The Old Shoreditch Station, London (2013)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Yinka Ilori]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Yinka Ilori artist