Online: Artists in Conversation | Jadé Fadojutimi at Yale Center for British Art

About Jadé Fadojutimi

Born in London in 1993, Fadojutimi is a British artist of Nigerian heritage. Her abstract paintings are often monumental in scale and make use of elements such as grids, layers, and disparate marks that create a sense of continual transformation. She refers to her paintings as “emotional landscapes” in which she questions everyday experiences, memories, and self-knowledge. In her interrogation of identity, and how it informs and is informed by one’s surroundings, Fadojutimi is fascinated by the ways we adorn ourselves with clothes and accessories to construct a sense of self. Though her work tends to be abstract, her compositions can suggest plants, microbes, or marine landscapes. Their surfaces are built up with layers of oil paint, sometimes interrupted by lines of oil pastel. Fadojutimi also combines elements of clothing, such as swatches of fabric and the shapes of stockings and bows, with ambiguous outlines to reflect the trauma of displacement. She draws inspiration from specific locations, cultures, objects, and sounds, and she is fascinated with Japanese anime, a primary influence in her paintings. Her obsession with anime has led her to learn Japanese and visit Japan several times a year.