Bursting with exuberant hues of blues, Cradled is an electrifying example of Jadé Fadojutimi’s dynamic painterly practice. Luscious strokes of indigo and teal coalesce with passages of vivid emerald and violet, creating a luminous sea of vibrant colours. Embracing chance and chaos, Fadojutimi’s intuitive practice transforms the canvas into a complex, emotional landscape. Undoubtedly one of the most exciting contemporary painters of our t.mes , Fadojutimi’s paintings reside in prestigious museum collects ions including The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis; The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; and The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, and at just 29 years old, Fadojutimi is the youngest artist in the collects ion of Tate, London.

Fadojutimi’s lively and powerful mark making culminates in a symphony of colours which dance across the canvas in a vivacious celebration of paint. The richly saturated canvas pulses with gesture and movement as loose translucent washes collide with thick blows of impasto. Fadojutimi builds up thin layers of pigment with rhythmic caresses, before intuitively scraping and scratching the painting’s luminous surface to leave a myriad of dancing grooves and sweeping strokes. Shimmering washes of blues and greens evoke the ethereal light of stained-glass windows, while the buoyant strokes of thick oils recall the dynamic physicality associated with the abstraction of Jackson Pollock or Joan Mitchell. Amidst the myriad of gestural strokes, notes of figuration punctuate the composition. Charged with energy and emotion, Fadojutimi’s work is grounded in her environment and experiences, and every canvas is an encapsulation of her ever-changing self. She describes her work as a diary of her life, transposing the visual and emotional stimulus from her everyday onto the canvas. The artist also cites Japanese fashion, manga and anime soundtrack as important sources of inspiration, and this fascination manifests itself in an abundance of color and freneticism. As looping swirls cascade into nebulous streaks of blues, and confetti of orange flutter across the canvas, Cradled occupies a liminal space between a spectrum of figurative and abstract.

At the heart of Fadojutimi’s practice is her love for colour, and exploding shades of cool blues and greens occupy center stage on the surface of the present work. The artist describes in her own words: “I think we can translate a lot of moods into colour, and see it literally, too. I’ve been thinking about a lot of what it.mes ans to talk about identity, or question it” (Jadé Fadojutimi quoted in: Jennifer Higgie, “From Life-Thoughts on the Paintings of Jadé Fadojutimi,,” Exh. Cat., London, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, Jadé Fadojutimi: Jesture, 2020, p. 9). Through gushing hues and dynamic strokes, the materiality of paint assumes the power to convey a vast range of identities, reflecting the fluidity and multiplicity of the human experience. Her nuanced, kaleidoscopic approach to colour recalls the vibrant cut-outs of Henri Matisse, the vivid interiors of David Hockney, or the dreamy landscape of Makiko Kudo.

Fadojutimi’s singular approach to abstraction marks a test.mes nt to the artist’s capacity to push boundaries and reinvent the tenets of contemporary painting, placing her as one of the most exciting painters working today. Indeed, as chief curator of the Hepworth Wakefield, Andrew Bonacina notes: “As paintings by a Black female artist made as part of a journey of self-understanding, Jadé’s work resonates with the heightened identity politics of the current moment, but it isn’t defined by these concerns. They are emotionally charged, psychological landscapes that mirrors Jadé’s own inner thoughts and emotions but can also reflect our own. Their power is in their abstraction and porousness to a range of ideas and emotions” (Andrew Bonacina quoted in: Alex Needham, “Jadé Fadojutimi Colors Outside the Lines,” W Magazine, 30 November 2021, online).