Sola Olulode (b. 1996) is based in London and received her BA in Fine Art Painting from the University of Brighton in 2018.
Her dreamy queer visions explore embodiments of British Black Womxn and Non-Binary Folx. Working with various mediums of dyeing, batik, wax, ink, pastel, oil bar, and impasto she develops textural canvases that explore the fluidities of identities. Drawing inspiration from lived experience, friends, and cultural reference points to centre Black Queer Womxn, Olulode emphasises the integral need of representation and celebration of queer intimacies.
Her utopian scenes celebrate relationships that transcend crude notions of queer sexuality, her figures exemplify the warm embrace of queer love, a temporal space to bathe in memories of intimacies abundant with scenes of profoundly deep tender connections. Envisaging a world reflective of the celebration of her own identities Olulode brings to life representation and visibility of Black Queer lived experiences. Her figures represent multifaceted complex individuals and the energy they hold in their bodies relishing in a boundless temporality of self-validation and joy.
Solo exhibitions include; I’ve Got To Know You Now We May Never Meet Again, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai (2025); Islands of the Blessed, Berntson Bhattacharjee, London (2024); Burning, Like the star that showed us our love, Ed Cross, London (2023); Could You Be Love, Sapar Contemporary, New York (2022); Where the Ocean Meets the Beach, VO Curations, London (2020). Group exhibitions include; Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art, The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, Washington DC (2026); The Cleaning, Space Un, Tokyo (2025); Queer Love, Stephen Friedman Gallery, New York (2025); The Peace of Wild Things, Soho Review, London (2025); Conversations, Walker Gallery Art, Liverpool (2024); Keeping Time, curated by Ekow Eshun and Karon Hepburn, Gallery 1957, Accra (2024); Hospital Rooms, Digital Art School, Hauser & Wirth, London (2024): In Praise of Black Errantry, Unit, Venice (2024); Like Paradise, Claridges Art Space, London (2023); Touching The Sky, Mucciaccia Contemporary, Rome (2023); Dreaming of Home, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, New York (2023); Reverie, Dada Gallery, Lagos (2023): To Be Held, Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate (2023). Sola’s work features in notable collections including Pérez Art Museum, Miami, and The Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.