At just 23 years old, Nigerian-born Olaolu Akeredolu-Ale AKA Slawn opens his first major solo art show today (September 12) at Saatchi Yates in London’s swanky St James. I present to you: Slawn. Fancy a slice?
‘1000 canvases’ is a composite of his spontaneous acrylic and spray-painted signature faces in primary colours bleeding into each other, repeated the length of an entire wall, comprising 1000 individual 29.7 x 21cm sections, available to purchase at £1000 each from 6pm via the gallery’s new online shop.
Surveying other work from the show, I’m drawn to ‘Ben.’ “He’s a very, very important Nigerian painter and sculptor. I learnt about him in secondary school and made my own kind of interpretation,” says Slawn. He’s referencing Ben Enwonwu’s masterpiece ‘Tutu,’ which became a symbol of reconciliation after Nigeria’s Biafra conflict and depicts the Ife princess Adetutu Ademiluyi. Slawn’s take is loaded with majesty given the subject’s poise and saturation of blue.
With most of his figures displaying downturned mouths, I ask him why the female figure in ‘First Kiss’ is smiling. “The thing that comes from a kiss is love, so it’s a happy feeling. The thing with most of my paintings is that they’re not very happy, they’re more direct and very much inspired by clowns. I see myself as a jester. I’ve got jester tattoos all over me and I just feel like the jester is very important to any situation,” the artist explains. Cutting the tension? “Yes, I feel like even if I was a King of a country, I’d still be a jester, so if anyone came to see who reigned on my land, they wouldn’t be looking for a jester, they’d be looking for a king. People can think I’m stupid, they can think I’m smart. I like being seen as non-threatening, but even if I was a threat, I don’t want you to know what is going to hit you when it’s going to hit you. I’m here to stay.”
