Tope Fatunmbi’s optical portrait paintings combine and collapse contemporary and historical Yorùbá life resulting in bold, bright compositions that blend the digital with the painterly.
With a focus on Yorùbá women, Fatunmbi looks to empower and embolden those who are
the pillars of Yorùbá society. Luscious, flowing patterns suggest a freedom reflected in their Yorùbá hairstyles - not only fashion statements but also tribal identifications. However, these Op Art style patterns also in some way erase these women, suggesting they are somewhat overlooked and under appreciated. Pushing against this notion, Fatunmbi renders their clothes and bodies in thick textural paint to elevate these women above the flatness of the canvas and image.
Fatunmbi’s works also engage in a dialogue with the digital, combining traditional familial im- agery rendered in textured impasto with graphic, digital airbrushed mark making. This tension that exists at the heart of the work offers a delicate balance between order and disorder; the expressive and the automatic. Fatunmbi’s experience as a tutor to a number of younger Nige- rian artists (including Oluwole Omofemi, among others) led him to reflect on the digital and it’s influence, combining different modes of mark making to create his unique take on figurative Op Art.
Fatunmbi was born and raised by educationist parents with deep cultural inclinations. As a child growing up in the ancient city of Ibadan, Fatunmbi spent more time with his paternal grandmother who worked as óni dírí- a female traditional hairstylist. In many ways this latest body of work is the product of his upbringing, as Fatunmbi likens the process and energy of weaving Yorùbá hairstyles to making an abstract painting - something which inspired the latest development of Fatunmbi’s unique brand of abstracted figuration.
One thing that is eminently clear throughout this body of work is Fatunmbi’s great eye for col- our - the works blush with an untamed energy as the varying tones wrestle for your attention. Meanwhile, Fatunmbi’s skill as portraitist is on full display in the delicate faces of the sitters that pierce you with their gaze. Combined with Fatunmbi’s textural, gestural depictions of icon- ic Yorùbá hairstyles, a body of work emerges that truly showcases all the strings to Fatunmbi’s bow. Fluid patterns melt into rigid, textural figures - each one subtly and delicately painted to reveal a sincerity that reminds us that despite technological and sociological advances we are still after all only human.
Tope Fatunmbi (b. 1975) has previously shown with Chilli Art Projects at AKAA Paris 2022, and had his debut solo exhibition with the gallery titled ‘The Black Prestige’ in 2023. VAT applicable for UK