Advisory Spotlight: Jadé Fadojutimi’s Unexplained Emotions

Jadé Fadojutimi b. 1993, United Kingdom Follow +

Fadojutimi often works at night in a bout of creativity, as reflected in the title of her 2017 painting, Heliophobia, referring to a ‘phobia of the sun’. The dark greys interspersed with flickering orange and white light conjure up the glowing atmosphere of her night studio, whilst some finer dark lines of paint seem to penetrate our sensory nervous system in an altogether more psychological manner.

Per Kirkeby and Varda Caivano come to mind stylistically, but the dynamism is perhaps more akin to de Kooning and more recently, Cecily Brown.

Fadojutimi has been very open about her struggle to find her own identity in painting and how she uses her medium to express ‘unexplained emotions’. This self-awareness and quest for honesty has helped her carve out a distinct visual language, enabling her to make remarkably assured paintings at an exceptionally young age.—[O]

Main image: Jadé Fadojutimi, Jesture (2020). Oil and oil stick on canvas. 180.2 x 200 cm. Courtesy Pippy Houldsworth Gallery.