Painted in 2021, Even an awkward smile can sprout beyond the sun, encapsulates the emotional intensity, spontaneity, and complexity that define Jadé Fadojutimi’s artistic practice. Exhibited at the Liverpool Biennial in 2021, this work was part of a carefully curated selection of Fadojutimi's large-scale paintings spanning distinct stages of her practice over a period of 5 years, offering a unique opportunity to witness the evolution of her visual language. In an interview with Studio International Magazine earlier that same year, Fadojutimi spoke to the inclusion of this work, which was then one of her most recent, describing it as “the youngest and most visually intense painting in the show,” and calling it “a complex gush of color” that she was excited to witness in discussion with the rest of her selection.ⁱ

“I bathe in the conversations between colour, texture, line, form, composition, rhythm, marks and disturbances.”

—Jadé Fadojutimi

Fadojutimi's process is deeply intuitive. Often completed in a single session where her physical interaction with the canvas becomes a dance, her paintings embody the energy of Abstract Expressionism while maintaining a distinctly contemporary edge. Her approach, described as "orchestrating randomness,"ⁱⁱ is evident in the layers of vibrant color and gestural brushstrokes that characterize Even an awkward smile can sprout beyond the sun. The present work can be understood as a visual manifestation of her internal dialogue—a conversation between her emotional state, memories, and the influences of her environment. 

Fadojutimi often describes her studio as "setting the stage for painting,"ⁱⁱⁱ where the physical environment deeply influences her creative process. The objects in her space, along with the ideas they inspire, subtly manifest in her works—not as direct representations, but through abstract elements such as energy, color, texture, and pattern. She views these compositions as their own kind of "environments," where the influence of the studio’s surroundings becomes intertwined with the painted surface. These complex works, neither wholly abstract nor figurative, are built up with layers of oil paint and interrupted by linear mark-making enabled by the introduction of oil bars into her practice. This new medium allowed Fadojutimi to expand her exploration of palette, composition, and depth, translating the spontaneity of her drawing into the evolving environment of the painting itself.

The title, Even an awkward smile can sprout beyond the sun, reflects Fadojutimi's engagement with language as an extension of her painting. “I write alongside my practice,” she says. “A lot of the language within my titles comes from the things I'm writing. I like to play with language as well in a way that responds to the reality that I'm experiencing.”^iv Her titles function as reflective and poetic extensions of her artistic process, deeply intertwined with her personal experiences and emotions. They capture moments of introspection—what she calls “a reflection of [herself] at that moment”^v—and invite viewers to explore the nuanced, often abstract, relationships between the visual and conceptual elements within her paintings. Rather than mere descriptors, her titles add a layer of meaning that disrupts conventional expectations, much like the way her paintings oscillate between figuration and abstraction.

In the present example, the title suggests a narrative of growth and resilience, where even something as hesitant as an "awkward smile" has the potential to grow and thrive ("sprout beyond the sun"). Visually, the painting reflects this idea through its tangled, yet vibrant composition. The sweeping lines and interwoven forms might symbolize the complexity of emotions or experiences that, despite their initial awkwardness, contribute to a larger, more beautiful whole. The colors themselves seem to sprout and spread across the canvas, echoing the title's theme of growth and the emergence of something beyond initial expectations.

Fadojutimi's paintings are autobiographical in a sense, rooted in her experiences and obsessions, yet they transcend mere personal narrative to engage with broader themes of identity and self-discovery. As writer and editor-at-large of Frieze magazine Jennifer Higgie writes: “In these paintings, the world, in all of its chaotic glory, exists as an intimation. Art is not an explanation: it’s a shot of energy, a flash of colour; a shimmer, a reaction, a line thrown out to see who might pick it up. Pictures are made by people and, like people, their tone can switch direction in the blink of an eye.”^vi In Even an awkward smile can sprout beyond the sun, the layers of oil, oil bar, and acrylic converge to create an immersive environment where forms on the brink of recognition dissolve into abstraction. This tension between the identifiable and the abstract is central to Fadojutimi's work, reflecting her belief that identity is not a fixed construct but a fluid, ever-evolving conversation.

Collector’s Digest

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  In July 2022, Fadojutimi joined Gagosian’s roster, debuting with an installation of new works at the gallery’s booth during Frieze London in October of that year. Her first solo exhibition with Gagosian, titled DWELVE: A Goosebump in Memory, opened on November 7 and will remain on view in New York through December 21, 2024.
   

  
  


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  Born in London, Fadojutimi studied at the Slade School of Art and the Royal College of Art. In 2021, at the age of twenty-six, she became the youngest artist to enter the Tate’s collection with I Present Your Royal Highness, 2018 and participated in the 59^th edition of the Venice Biennale the following year. Her work can be found in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Kunstmuseum Bonn, and the Institute for Contemporary Art, Miami, among others.

  
  

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  Last fall, Phillips held the auction record for Fadojutimi with Quirk my mannerism, 2021, which realized $1.93M USD Phillips New York on Tuesday, November 14, 2023. 

  
  

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  Fadojutimi recently featured at Le Consortium in Dijon, France, as part of Abstraction (re)creation—20 under 40, which closed September 8, 2024. Her work was also on view in Space for Imaginative Actions at Kunstmuseum Bonn (through January 1, 2024), and in Making Their Mark, curated by Cecilia Alemani, at the Shah Garg Foundation, New York (through January 27, 2024).

  
  

ⁱ David Trigg, “Jadé Fadojutimi – interview: ‘I bathe in the conversations between colour, texture, line, form, composition, rhythm, marks and disturbances’,” studio international, April 26, 2021, online.

ⁱⁱ Jadé Fadojutimi, quoted in “Jadé Fadojutimi – 'The Numbing Vibrancy of Characters in Play',” PEER Gallery, Aug. 11, 2022, video, online.

ⁱⁱⁱ David Trigg, “Jadé Fadojutimi – interview: ‘I bathe in the conversations between colour, texture, line, form, composition, rhythm, marks and disturbances’,” studio international, April 26, 2021, online.

^iv Jadé Fadojutimi, quoted in Habiba Hopson, “New Additions: Jadé Fadojutimi,” The Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine, April 4, 2023, online. 

^v Ibid. 

^vi Jennifer Higgie, quoted in “From Life – Thoughts on the paintings of Jadé Fadojutimi,” Jadé Fadojutimi: Jesture, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, 2021, p. 11.