Sola Olulode (b. 1996) lives and works in South London. Olulode’s paintings are nuanced and tender visions of intimacy and community. Her celebrations of black identity, womanhood, femmes, and non-binary people are distinguished by their use of gestural brushwork, indigo dye, wax, oil bar and impasto, which speak of her Nigerian heritage. Allowing the body to take centre stage, she gives prominence to movement, gesture and dance as binding forces which reflect both personal and collective experience, individuality and common strength. Her trademark blues and yellows become metaphors for a state of mind, energy & harmony, dance & meditation, joy & contemplation, love & desire, which reveal the complexity of identities within her communities. In 2018 Olulode was shortlisted for the Evening Standard Art Prize (Final 10) and awarded the Lewisham Arthouse Graduate Studio Bursary.

Notable exhibitions include: VO Curations 12th Floor, London (2020); Brixton Library, London (2019); Moving in the Bluish Light. von Goetz, London (2018).

selected works