Abi Ola - For my art practice I specialise in painting, drawing, screen printing, collaging, batik, and textiles. My artwork focuses on shapes and patterns. I get inspiration from old photographs, fabrics that I find in my house, and different exhibitions. For example, Oceanic art from the Royal Academy of Arts, African textiles from the British Museum, and William Morris wallpaper designs. When painting the figures in the photographs I realised that I was much more interested in the shapes and patterns that I found in their clothes than the figures themselves. Therefore, I began to focus on the shapes and patterns and created my own pattern designs in my paintings. I use the above mentioned pattern reference sources to explore my identity, being West African, and living in Britain. For example, some of the patterns come from Nigerian traditional attire, worn by my father, while others are floral patterns that my mother wore, typically associated with British textiles. My patterns go beyond my two dimensional paintings, they also find their way onto the interior design of buildings, clothes, and skin. This is a way for me to completely envelop myself and the viewer within my world of patterns.
Education -
The Slade School Of Fine Art, University College London, Master Of Fine Arts, 2019 - 2021, Distinction
Goldsmiths University Of London, Bachelor Of Fine Arts, 2016 - 2019, 1st Class Honours
The Royal Drawing School Foundation Year, 2015 -2016
Exhibitions -
The Universe Within Copeland Gallery 2024
Open Cells Residency Exhibition 2023
Ferens Open Exhibition- Ferens Art Gallery, Hull 2023
New Contemporaries, Ferens Art Gallery, and Humber Street Gallery, Hull 2022, and the South London Gallery, 2022-23
Group Show, Good Eye Projects autumn residency, Christie's London, 2022
'Work In Process', group exhibition at the Kupfer Gallery, London, 2022
Rawlinson and Hunter, Ingram Prize alumni group exhibition, London, 2022
The VCRB Gallery, Duo Show with Ilke Cop, Belgium, 2022
Whirl, Sway, Bounce, Group Show, The Safe House, London, 2022
Slade 150th Anniversary Octagon Gallery Exhibition, 2021-2022
Ingram Prize Finalists' Exhibition, Unit 1 Gallery, 2021
Saatchi London Grads Now 2021 The Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibition, London, 2021
End Of Year Degree Show, The Slade School Of Fine Art, 2021
Word As Art, University College London, Online Exhibition, 2021
The Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize short-list exhibition - Coventry Cathedral, 2021
Kupfer, The Gaze Is A Singular Act, London, 2020
End Of Year Degree Show, Goldsmiths, University Of London, 2019
Solo Exhibitions -
High Street Happenings Residency Solo Show, London, 2024
'I'll Be Your Mirror', Kupfer Gallery, 2023
'Kaleidoscopic Bodies', Frans Kasl Project , Netherlands, 2022
Flatland Projects, Overmorror House, All Are Gone, The Old Familiar Faces, Battle, 2022
Bloomsbury Festival, Vision, Store Street Building Centre, London, 2020 - 2021
Residencies -
Art at Heart Hackney Libraries2024
High Street Happenings Arbeit Studios 2023-2024
Open Cells The Koppel Project 2023
In Transit the full grant for d/Deaf, disabled, neurodivergent and/or chronically ill artist, 2023
Good Eye Projects Autumn Residency, 2022
Kupfer Gallery Residency For Hackney Based Artists, 2022
UCL East Student In Residence, 2021-2023
Kupfer Residency, 2021
Training -
Art School Plus 2023
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