Deftly choreographed paintings that call upon the sacred and sublime.
Adeniyi-Jones creates expressive paintings of fluid patterns, decadent palettes and rhythmic figuration. Being both British and Nigerian, he roots his practice in revealing the influence of African art forms on European art history. Techniques such as batik and monotype depict Yoruba rituals in recreations of traditional masks, scarifications, dances and deities. The artist’s figurative take on colour field abstraction is informed by canonical painters like Aaron Douglas and Ben Enwonwu, while classical African and Greek statues of royalty, athletes and gods have inspired Adeniyi-Jones to rend...
Bio
Tunji Adeniyi-Jones was born in 1992 in London, UK, and is currently based in New York, USA.
Accolades
After receiving his MFA from Yale, Adeniyi-Jones was the inaugural recipient of the Black Rock Residency in Senegal, and in 2020 appeared in the art and style section of Forbes' iconic 30 Under 30 list.
At Auction
The artist's sought-after originals have led to a series of exponential auction results, most recently when painting Love Ritual was purchased for $208,379 in 2021 - more than triple its estimate.