Artist 216
Toyin Ojih Odutola
Portraiture
Toyin Ojih Odutola (born 1985) is an Nigerian-American contemporary visual artist known for her vivid multimedia drawings and works on paper.
Ojih Odutola produces multimedia drawings that engage in the complexity and shape-ability of identity. Shown in her unique style of complex mark-making, her lavish compositions rethink the category and traditions of portraiture and storytelling Ojih Odutola is best known for her very detailed portrait drawings, entirely or primarily done in black pen ink. Her more recent work has expanded to include charcoal, pastel, and pencil.
Ojih Odutola's work is often times viewed as challenging the many traditional notions about social and political identity as well as the framework of which it is defined. Her work is an intentional means of translating those narratives about race, identity, and class visually. This is done through the medium she uses as well as the textures conveyed in the figures in her detailed drawings.
For Ojih Odutola, texture is a form of communication and language with the viewer. The various marks she creates represent dialect and accent.
Her work explores her personal journey of having been born in Nigeria then moving and assimilating into American culture in conservative Alabama.
"I’m doing black on black on black, trying to make it as layered as possible in the deepness of the blackness to bring it out. I noticed the pen became this incredible tool. The black ballpoint [pen] ink on blackboard would become copper tone and I was like 'wow, this isn’t even black at all!' The black board was like this balancing platform for the ink to become something else. I instantly recognized this notion, of how we think something is a certain way and in reality it is something else…” - Toyin Ojih Odutola Ojih Odutola’s figures appear enigmatic and mysterious, set against luxurious backdrops of domesticity and leisure. They, and the worlds they inhabit, are informed by the artist’s own array of inspirations, which range from art history to popular culture to experiences of migration and dislocation.
She is highly attentive to detail and the nuances of space, class, and color—whether of palette or skin—as such Ojih Odutola portrays her examinations of narrative, authenticity, and representation.
When asked why the majority of her figures are black in a recent interview with the Village Voice, Ojih Odutola responded,
“Of course they’re black figures because they’re drawn in black pen, but not all of the figures are of African American descent, or at least the reference isn’t. One of the things I like to play with is, “What is black?” Is it because I drew it? Is it because it looks black? Is it because you think the figure is black? Because a lot of it is just a filter, and the filters get more and more obstructed by whatever people think the image is about and not really what it is.”
#Toyinojihodutola #Portraiture #artblog #artistoftheday #artistsoninstagram #artresearch #celebratingart #investigatingart #blog #artist #art #contemporaryart #artistbio #arthistory #artresearch Sources consulted: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyin_Ojih_Odutola https://www.jackshainman.com/artists/toyin-odutola/ https://whitney.org/exhibitions/toyinojihodutola
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