E X H I B I T I O N


Sola Olulode

Burning, like the star that showed us to our love

Hailed by Arsty as one of their top 5 must see exhibitions in the world

30 September - 16 December 2023

Launch 29 September | 6-8 PM (FREE)
87 Princes Avenue, Hull HU5 3QP

Sola Olulode | Burning, like the star that showed us to our love

Sola Olulode is a British Nigerian artist living and working in London. Presenting nuanced and tender visions of intimacy and community, Olulode’s images are celebrations of Black identity, womanhood and non-binary people. Distinguished by their use of gestural brushwork, indigo dye, batik wax, oil bar, impasto and monochromatic schemes, the artist’s compositions speak strongly of her Nigerian heritage while centring the representation and visibility of Black queer lived experiences.


 Here, Olulode’s unmistakable visual language – tender feelings and vivid colour – finds its latest incarnation: a yellow rush of romance. Following the artist’s blue and green series, depicting relationships across communities as well as between couples, Burning focuses on the near-universal – and all-consuming – experience of falling in love. 


In a sequence verging on storyboard, the artist returns to a couple as their romance blossoms: meeting, dancing late at night; wrapped around each other, blissful. The works vary in materiality and scale but Olulode’s insistence on joy for her protagonists is unwavering. Blue fabric wall hangings underpin the sunny yellow of Olulode's canvases, offering an all-encompassing sense of sky and space. A recurring sun motif represents warmth, light and love.


Olulode paints Black queer women and non-binary people – demographics for whom pop-culture has historically offered little in the way of happy endings. Intent on illustrating success and pleasure for the marginalised communities with which she identifies, Olulode asks us settle in the gallery space and enjoy the love story unfolding on its walls. 

 

Curated in collaboration with Ed Cross Gallery

Sola Olulode

b. London 1996. Lives and Works in London

Sola Olulode’s dreamy queer visions explore embodiments of British Black Women and Non-Binary Folx. Working with various mediums of  dyeing, batik, wax, ink, pastel, oil bar, and paint, she develops textural canvases that explore the fluidities of identities. Drawing inspiration from lived experience, friends, and cultural reference points to centre Black Queer Women, Olulode emphasises 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.

Olulode received a BA in Fine Art Painting from the University of Brighton in 2018. Since graduating she has succeeded residencies with solo shows: 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; Blacklisted: An Indefinite Revolution (2020), Christie’s Education. 2021 An Infinity of Traces. Lisson Gallery. London (2021), Breakfast Under The Tree. Carl Freedman Gallery. Margate, Kent (2021), In Heavenly Blue, Lagos, Nigeria (2021).

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VISITING SAFELY 

  • Please book a FREE ticket in advance

  • Hand sanitiser will be provided and regular use is encouraged

  • If you are not feeling well, have been advised to isolate, or fall into a vulnerable or at risk group, please help keep yourself and others safe by staying home

  • For more information about our Covid-19 guidelines, please email us.

WHAT TO EXPECT 

  • Automatic door

  • A lift ( available for access use only ).

  • Hand sanitiser dispensers provided in the galler

  • Disabled Toilet facilities

  • Staff are unable to take personal belongings such as bags or coats

Have a question or want to discuss access needs? Contact us.