Motunrayo Akinola b. 1992

Curved, imperfect lines derive from a series of performative acts in the artist’s studio, asserting presence while structuring compositions that oscillate between dense blackness and negative space. These drawings are assembled into large-scale installations, as though fragments of a larger whole. Akinola's work is shaped by routine and repetition, yet it unfolds through imaginary landscapes molded by symbolic form. Through abstraction, Akinola considers the fragile cohesion of things coming together, interacting, balancing, and perhaps falling apart again.

While seemingly elusive, Akinola’s imagery references subtle systems and cultural codes that suggest the politics of othering. Certain forms evoke teeth, alluding to historical practices of teeth blackening in parts of Southeast Asia, once traditionally regarded as a marker of beauty. Akinola is drawn to shifting generational attitudes toward beauty and blackness, and the ways these transformations can enable more self-affirming relationships to heritage. As a British-Nigerian artist who has lived between both countries, Motunrayo’s practice examines how place, identity and movement are experienced across contexts. These compositions also allude to the form of the rising or setting sun, suggesting ritual, cyclical time, and rebirth. Faint gesso marks in the background evoke ancestral spirits or ghostly guidance. Akinola’s drawings reflect a type of mapmaking of histories and consciousness, forming emotive landscapes that are at once dystopian and quietly optimistic. Sunrise, teeth, and gesture emerge as symbols not only of perseverance, but of psychological survival and renewal.