Aliu Olatunji

Aliu Olatunji, 1998, Lagos Nigeria

With a combination of charcoal and paints, Aliu Olatunji (b.1998) joins together an array of contemporary and realism on canvas and paper. Merging with abstraction, these works explore comical, expressive and emotional charged, pride, and the competing desires to assimilate and to be seen. Olatunji’s practice explores how charcoal and paint (specifically neon paints) is used as a marker of class, gender, and cultural identity. Privileging mixed media—literally centering materials that have been cut—becomes a metaphor for centralizing that which society undervalues. By contrasting common materials like pencil, charcoal, paints with mixed Media. The artist addresses material hierarchies in art and fashion to parallel the power dynamics that exist within class and gender.

The Artist CV