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The Arts Intel Report

Toyin Ojih Odutola: A Countervailing Theory

Aug 11–28, 2020
Silk St, Barbican, London EC2Y 8DS, UK

“I needed to create something I could take with me wherever I went,” Toyin Ojih Odutola says of her practice. What better than stories? Ojih Odutola compares fiction to drawing, believing the pen to be a “writing tool first.” With ink, pastel, and charcoal her visual narratives take form—scenes ripe with meaning, reflections on her Nigerian American heritage. —E.C.

Toyin Ojih Odutola, “Introductions: Early Embodiment” from A “Countervailing Theory,” 2019 © Toyin Ojih Odutola. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.