Fadekemi Ogunsanya Nigeria, b. 1995

Fadekemi Ogunsanya is a multi-disciplinary Nigerian artist based in the UK. Born in 1995. She paints cathartic emotional landscapes, scenes concerned with the ineffable questions of love, joy, suffering, and loss. Having grown up within a patriarchal Yoruba family structure, Ogunsanya exposes another side to this world. Her work carries a complex awareness of womanhood and the covert power of female alliances within such traditional structures. Infused with mythological references - indigo, a colour steeped in cosmic significance within Yoruba culture, animates this world. Ogunsanya’s subjects exude a quiet confidence and exist somewhere between portraits and imagination, a collection of faces and spirits intertwined, sharing profound bonds of mutual reinforcement.

Ogunsanya explores unconventional avenues of presentation, which depart from the conventions of the white cube. As a trained architect, Ogunsanya’s paintings extend beyond the two dimensional and into objects in and of themselves: she designs and creates hand-painted, laser-cut, wooden frames that hold each painting and allow them to straddle the space between image and object.

Fadekemi Ogunsanya received her Masters from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. Recent solo exhibitions include Nina Johnson, Miami, USA (2023); Easy Remedies For A Tired Heart, FF Projects, London, UK (2023); Sweet Joy, Sweet Suffering, Lagos, Nigeria (2021). In 2022, she took part in group shows at Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town, Ben Brown Fine Arts in Hong Kong and London, and Frieze No.9 Cork Street in London.