I’ll be back in Venice next week doing a couple of panels during the preopening of the 61st week Venice Biennale. One with African Art in Venice Forum and the other at the British Pavilion here are the details(links in bio below. Let me know if you’re there!
Panel Discussion: We Carry What We Cannot Leave
Join us at the British Pavilion for a panel discussion with artist Sola Olulode, Pio Abad, Fiona Paddington, and Mohammad Rahman, marking the opening of Lubaina Himid’s exhibition Predicting Histories: Testing Translation, at the 61st International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia.
Drawing on Dorothy Price’s reading of ‘dwelling’ alongside Himid’s practice, moves beyond architecture to foreground everyday practices, clothing, food, and cultivation, as ways of shaping how bodies inhabit the world. The conversation considers how belonging is constructed, negotiated, and felt. Expanding on the notion of ‘dwelling,’ Himid.
Bringing together artists Sola Olulode, Pio Abad, Fiona Paddington, and Mohammad Rahman, the panel engages questions of migration, memory, and the afterlives of colonial systems. Across their practices, histories are not only revisited, but reconfigured opening up alternative modes of living, relating, and world-building.
As seating is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis, we kindly ask that you RSVP only if you can attend. Please note that attendees must be able to access the Giardini.
AAV Panel:
Building on NMAfA’s Here Project, the panel opens a conversation where queer African voices are not just visible, but central to art history
Beyond Here: Queering African Art History
What’s next? This panel builds from the National Museum of African Art’s launch of its Here Project–the largest museum initiative of its kind to date to research, exhibit, collect, and to integrate artists from Africa making work connected to their experiences as out individuals. An opportunity to meet artists and thinkers both in and beyond the Project, the panel seeks to further the conversation about what it means to study, exhibit, and participate in an art history in which queer African voices are not only acknowledged but centred.
So proud to share some images of my painting Eternal Light up at Smithsonian National Museum of African Art as part of the exhibition Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art. A momentous exhibition which opened in January curated by Kevin D. Dumouchelle and Serubiri Moses I’m proud to be part of. The exhibition runs until August 23, 2026.
I will be taking part in a roundtable this Friday with curators and other artists from the exhibition. Link in bio:
Inventive Leaps, Unruly Voyages: A Roundtable on “Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art
12 noon-3:00 pm on Friday, March 27, Eastern US time. 4:00 pm in London, UK/GMT.
Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art,” National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian
Institution, Photos by Brad Simpson, 2026
Eternal Light
2020
Ink, acrylic and wax on canvas
210 X 150 cm
Nothing beats the magic of a first kiss 💙 ✨ First Kiss by Sola Olulode imagines a queer couple in the early stages of their romance.
‘I’m painting things I want to see more of,’ Sola says, ‘I wasn’t witnessing enough stories of Black queer couples visibly happy and at peace, existing in the bubble of romance’
Inspired by Adire textiles, a type of dyed cloth from south west Nigeria, Sola dyed the canvas indigo. She then layered it with paints and pastels to develop a textural surface that reflects the fluidities of identities, including aspects of femininity, race and belonging.
First Kiss is on display for free outside of the gallery - check it out over a cup of coffee at the Hayward Gallery Cafe ☕
Last day of @marketartfair today with @berntsonbhattacharjee in Stockholm showing my series ‘Take me down to the water’ alongside sculptural furniture by Harry Parr-Young.
A fave from the new series on view now at @marketartfair with @berntsonbhattacharjee . It’s been fun exploring new colour palettes 🩷💙🩷
Before we drift any deeper
2026
Àdìre alábélá (batik), indigo, dye, pastel on canvas
15 x 10 cm
Solo booth at @marketartfair opens this week in Stockholm. Exhibiting a new body of work back with my loves @berntsonbhattacharjee 🩵
A drop of magic, 2026
Àdìre alábélá (batik), dye, pastel and ink on canvas
30 x 21 cm
Market Art Fair, Stockholm
See the works at Booth 19
VIP Preview
Thursday 23 April: 11 am - 6 pm
Friday 24 April: 11 am - 8 pm
Fair Dates
Saturday 25 April: 11 am - 6 pm
Sunday 26 April: 11 am - 5 pm
Address
Magasin 9
Frihamnsgatan 66
115 56 Stockholm
Sweden
For Market Art Fair 2026, @berntsonbhattacharjee presents @solaolulode
Her work centres Black queer womxn and non-binary folx, unfolding through scenes shaped by intimacy, memory and lived experience. Working across natural dyeing, batik, wax, ink, pastel and oil bar, Olulode builds layered, tactile surfaces that reflect the fluidity of identity. Her compositions draw on friends and cultural references, forming spaces where representation and presence remain central.
Her scenes hold a sense of closeness, where relationships extend beyond fixed ideas of sexuality. Figures gather in moments of care and connection, suggesting a space shaped by affection, visibility and self-definition.
Market Art Fair 2026
24–26 April, #stockholm
Sola Olulode. Photo Brynley Odu Davies
Sola Olulode, ‘You in the middle of the world’, (2023)
Dallas Art Fair continues through April 19th! Visit Booth F8 to see these works by Sola Olulode.
Sola Olulode’s dreamy queer visions explore embodiments of British Black Womxn and Non-Binary Folx. Working with various mediums of natural 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 emphasizes 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. @solaolulode@dallasartfair #dallasartfair #dallasmuseumofart #solaolulode #saparcontemporary #adaagalleries
