Through vibrant, complex paintings that straddle abstraction and figuration, Jadé Fadojutimi explores the intersection between identity and environment. Her large-scale works frequently convey intense emotion through a process of lyrical mark making that incorporates rich colors, textures, and translucent layers. Many of Fadojutimi’s works come to life through a combination of drawing and writing, a personal practice that is often deeply poetic. Interested in creating immersive worlds, the artist draws on the entirety of her personal experience, filling her studio with audio and visual stimuli that evoke and heighten the emotion of her memories.

The looping lines in A point to pointlessness (2019) feature an array of colors, including surprising and vibrant yellows and blues that emerge from a translucent magenta field set amid a black background. Lines converge into forms at the center of the composition only to dissolve arounds its edges, while a dense pattern of interlocking textures and layers seems to be navigated by the energies of the material and colors themselves. Fadojutimi has compared the surface of her paintings to that of a window, describing it as a “facade of a sense of place.” Through transparency and reflection, the viewer’s image seems to fleetingly fuse with the environment. “The notion of the ‘self’ and the fracturing of identity are explored in my paintings through creating locations of familiar unfamiliarity, fears and unknowns,” she says. “In response, the work hopes to become a journey to establish a relationship with the real.”

Jadé Fadojutimi (b. 1993, London) lives and works in London. She received a BA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 2015, and an MA from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2017, where she was awarded the Hine Painting Prize. The London gallery PEER presented Fadojutimi’s first solo exhibition, “The Numbing Vibrancy of Characters in a Play,” in 2019. She has participated in group exhibitions internationally, including at the Rachofsky Warehouse in Dallas, Texas, for the Dallas (2018), and the Royal College of Art, London (2017). Fadojutimi has been selected to participate in the 2021 Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art. Her work is represented in the collections of the Tate, London, and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.