BIOGRAPHY

Toyin Ojih Odutola (b. 1985, Ife, Nigeria) creates multimedia drawings on various surfaces investigating the limits of representation while engaging with eclectic modes of storytelling.

Ojih Odutola has participated in exhibitions at various institutions, including The Drawing Center, New York (2018—19); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017—18); Brooklyn Museum, New York (2016); Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2015); Studio Museum Harlem, New York (2015, 2012); Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield (2013); and Menil Collection, Houston, (2012).

Permanent collections include Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Princeton University Art Museum, Spencer Museum of Art, Honolulu Museum of Art, and the National Museum of African Art (Smithsonian).

She earned her BA from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and her MFA from California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Ojih Odutola lives and works in New York.

(PDF copy of CV)

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Ojih Odutola’s pastel drawing, “Hide Out,” 2018, seen here in situ with Mary Cassatt’s, is included in the exhibition, Nicholas Party: Pastel, at The FLAG Art Foundation, in New York, through February 15th, 2020.

Ojih Odutola’s new work on linen, Introductions: Early Embodiment, 2019, is on view at Frieze London, with Jack Shainman Gallery, the 2nd — 6th of October 2019.

Toyin Ojih Odutola is the cover subject for LINDSAY Magazine’s October 2019 issue No. 4, featuring an interview with Kimberly Drew and portrait photographs in her studio by Beth Wilkinson.

Toyin Ojih Odutola was the subject of PBS NewsHour’s weekly segment, “Brief But Spectacular,” which aired on September 19th, 2019.

A segment of Toyin Ojih Odutola’s series, The Treatment, 2015-17, has recently been acquired by The Art Institute of Chicago’s Society for Contemporary Art.

Ojih Odutola’s artwork is featured in the Summer 2019 issue of The Georgia Review, with her drawing, Picnic on the Grounds, 2017-18, as the journal’s cover.

Ojih Odutola's work is now on view in the Future Generation Art Prize’s group exhibition, an official collateral event of the 58th Venice Biennale, highlighting the works of the 21 short-listed artists for the 2019 prize, through August 18th. (Photo: PinchukArtCentre)

Ojih Odutola’s new work on linen, A Pull At The Back Of The Mind, 2019, is on view at Frieze New York, with Jack Shainman, the 2nd — 5th of May 2019.

Toyin Ojih Odutola is participating in the Academy of American Poets’ 17th annual “Poetry & the Creative Mind” reading in celebration of National Poetry Month, to be held at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on April 24th.

Ojih Odutola’s work is featured in Volume 60, Issue 1 of The Massachusetts Review, with her drawing, What Her Daughter Sees, 2018, as the quarterly’s cover.

Ojih Odutola’s multi-media drawing, The Flavor and The Intent, 2015, is included in the group exhibition, Drawn Together Again, at The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, through May 18th.

Ojih Odutola’s drawing, My Country Has No Name, 2013, is included in the group exhibition, Show Me as I Want to Be Seen,on view at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, California through July 7th, 2019.

Ojih Odutola’s drawing, Anchor, 2018, is included in the group exhibition, Damn! The Defiant, on view at Fredericks & Freiser, New York, through March 2nd, 2019.

Ojih Odutola participated in MoMA’s How To See video episode exploring Charles White’s work, on the occasion of his retrospective at the museum.

Toyin Ojih Odutola’s tribute portrait drawing of the late Aretha Franklin for The New York Times Magazine’s “The Lives They Lived” issue cover, released December 30th, 2018.

Ojih Odutola’s drawing, The Uncertainty Principle, 2014, is the cover illustration for Jennifer C. Nash’s new book, Black Feminism Reimagined After Intersectionality, released by Duke University Press, 2019.

Ojih Odutola’s drawing, Projection Enclave, 2018, has been acquired by Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Ojih Odutola’s drawing In This Imperfect Present Moment, 2016, which inspired the group exhibition title, is now on view at Seattle Art Museum, through June 16th, 2019.

Ojih Odutola’s drawing, A Well-Read Life, 2017, along with other selected works, is included in the exhibition of shortlisted artists for The Future Generation Art Prize at the PinchukArtCentre, on view through April 7th, 2019.

The publication accompaniment, Toyin Ojih Odutola: A Matter of Fact, (2018), which catalogs the titular exhibition from 2016, at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, has been released.

Ojih Odutola and Zadie Smith in conversation at The Drawing Center, New York, on the occasion of the group exhibition, For Opacity.

Toyin Ojih Odutola, Birmingham (left, middle, right), 2014, lithograph suite, made in collaboration with Tamarind Institute.

Ojih Odutola's diptych drawing, The Engagement, 2015, was recently acquired by Mississippi Museum of Art. Read more about the work here.

A segment of Toyin Ojih Odutola’s drawing series, The Treatment, 2015—17, is on view in the group exhibition, Orientation: The Racial Imaginary Institute Biennial, at Jack Shainman Gallery. Read more about the series here.