Jadé Fadojutimi is a London-born artist known for her large-scale paintings that explore the intertwining concepts of identity and beauty. She graduated from the Slade School of Art with a BA in 2015 and later obtained an MA from the Royal College of Art in 2017, earning the prestigious Hine Painting Prize that same year.
Fadojutimi's artworks are characterized by their monumental size and their skillful orchestration of color, space, line, and movement. She seeks to convey fluid emotions and delve into the depths of self-knowledge through her artistic expression. By reinterpreting everyday experiences, Fadojutimi aims to unravel the complexities of identity and beauty.
Employing elements from twentieth-century painting, such as grids, layers, and diverse marks, Fadojutimi constructs compositions that evoke a sense of perpetual transformation. While her paintings may hint at organic forms such as plants, microbes, or marine landscapes, they lean predominantly towards abstraction. The artist describes these intricate arrangements as "environments," meticulously built up with layers of oil paint and occasionally interrupted by lines of oil pastel. Fadojutimi also incorporates elements of clothing, such as fabric swatches, stockings, and bows, their outlines deliberately ambiguous to evoke the trauma of displacement.
Fadojutimi draws inspiration from various sources, including specific locations, cultures, objects, and sounds. Japanese anime, clothing, and soundtracks hold particular sway over her creative process, as evidenced by her repeated travels to Japan, including a residency in 2016. Writing is integral to her artistic practice, serving both as a means to articulate the subtleties of her paintings and as a parallel form of expression. Fadojutimi views herself as both an artist and a writer, finding equal significance in both facets of her creativity.
Fadojutimi's talent and distinctive artistic vision have garnered recognition and opportunities to showcase her work. She has held solo exhibitions, such as "The Numbing Vibrancy of Characters in Play" at London's Peer gallery in 2019 and "Yet, Another Pathetic Fallacy" at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami in 2021. In 2022, she is scheduled to have a solo exhibition at England's Hepworth Wakefield. Additionally, Fadojutimi has participated in prominent group exhibitions and biennials, including "Jahresgaben 2020" at Germany's Bonner Kunstverein, the Liverpool Biennial's "The Stomach and the Port" in 2021, "Mixing It Up: Painting Today" at London's Hayward Gallery in 2021, and "The Milk of Dreams" at the 59th Biennale di Venezia in 2022.