Nigeria Calling: The Rise and Rise of Instagram Art Sensation Slawn
With an army of fans and collectors spanning the worlds or art, fashion, music and sports, London-based Slawn is an artist gathering unstoppable momentum in the market.
W ith his distinct focus on transatlantic Black culture in and amongst urban hubs like London, Lagos or New York, Nigerian artist Olaolu Akeredolu-Ale, known as Slawn, expands the domain within which this subversive spirit operates, and comparisons can comfortably be drawn with the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Rooted at the forefront of London’s creative landscape, the artist has undertaken a vast array of projects, and his auction debut was at Sotheby's in 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Contemporary Curated in 2022, overseen by his friend and collabဣoജrator, Skepta.
He🐎 is the youngest and first Nigerian-born artist to design the BRIT awards, was championed by Virgil Abloh for a collaboration with Louis Vuitton and has been commissi♎oned by the most prominent figures in creative culture globally, including A$AP Rocky, Central Cee and Wizkid.
Born in 2000, Slawn has crafted a persona which straddles a panoply of cultural media, his output spanning the realms of Fine A🌼rt, collectibles, music, design, and moving-image. Like the iconic Pop Artists, or the virally provocative graffiti-turned-fine artists whose works captivate audiences the world over, Slawn’s rise to prominence is characterised by his ability to seize the attention of a colossal fan base and maintain control over the desirability of his output through his masterful utilisation of spectacle.
Slawn has enjoyed a cult-like folౠlowing from the outset. Among his most viral moments are the artist’s so called ‘fight clubs’, where his followers flock to his studio for the chance to be gifted a painting, often leading to the breakout of minor brawls. This irreverence may at first appear antithetical to the recognised conception of the artist or their audience. Yet, there is a serious case for seeing Slawn ✅as being at the forefront of a tradition of subversiveness which stretches back to art movements as historically critical as Modernism.
“I’m not just Nigerian, I am Yoruba. This work is an expression of my identity.”
Artists like Duchamp, Haring or Banksy have famously adopted a near contemptuous nonchalance with regards to their production, and in doing so have stretched the modernist imperative of self-critical production to its limits. Slawn regularly pays homage to such artists in his work, revealing an affinity for su🧸ch a polemical artistic spirit.
Whether it be spontaneous line drawing akin to the iconic works of 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Keith Haring, the interpolation of popular characters like 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Mickey Mouse by artists like Andy Warho꧂l, KAWS and George Condo or the adoption of an unpredictably c🤡oy-yet-cunning persona à la Koons, Slawn’s proliferating oeuvre exemplifies this role as a figure at the forefront of both popular and ‘high’ culture.
Slawn’s persona embodies a synthesis of global cultural influences, and his production reifies the tradition of subversive, self-critical and comedic artwork. Artists like Slawn mark the visual cꦛulture of our age and will inevitably shape the topography of the contemporaneous art ecology.
Where his academically-trained, industry literate contemporaries are acquainted with and operate within the conventions of art history, artists like Slawn force the canon to make space fo🌜r their work, leveraging their ubiquity within contemporary visual culture to enter the annals of history by sheer force and provocation.
