Olaolu Slawn
Painting · London
Olaolu Slawn
Slawn is a Nigerian-born, London-based painter whose raw cartoon figures and spray-paint scrawl have made him one of the most talked-about young voices in British contemporary art. His clown-faced characters carry the speed of a graffiti tag and the weight of an editorial — irreverent on the surface, quietly serious about race, identity, and the absurdity of the art world underneath.
Born Olaolu Akeredolu-Ale in Lagos in 2000, Slawn came of age inside Wafflesncream, Nigeria's first skate shop, where he co-founded the Motherlan collective alongside his closest collaborators. He moved to London in 2018, picked up a brush during the 2020 lockdown, and within three years had become the youngest artist — and the first Nigerian-born artist — ever commissioned to redesign the BRIT Awards trophy, casting it in bronze as a quiet nod to the Yoruba sculptures of his childhood.
Now represented by Saatchi Yates and collected by figures from A$AP Rocky to Skepta, Slawn paints with the urgency of someone who refuses to wait his turn. His 2024 London solo exhibition released a thousand canvases at a thousand pounds each — a gesture as much about access as about market — and it left no doubt that the loudest new voice in London painting still carries Lagos in every line.
Works · 1
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