Biography

Education

2012  MFA in Painting and Drawing, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, California

2008  BA in Studio Art and Communications, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Residencies & Fellowships

2017—2018  Lida A. Orzeck Distinguished Artist-in-Residence^︎︎︎, Barnard College

2016  Headlands Center for the Arts^︎︎︎, Sausalito, California

2014  Tamarind Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico

2014  Flying Horse Editions^︎︎︎, College of Arts & Humanities at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida

2012  Tamarind Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico

2012  Flying Horse Editions, College of Arts & Humanities at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida

2007  Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship Grant, Yale School of Art, Norfolk, Connecticut

Awards & Honors

2022  Great Immigrants Recipient^︎︎︎, Carnegie Corporation of New York
2022  The Drawing Center Honors

2020  Artist of the Year^︎︎︎, Apollo Awards
2020  Prix Jean-François Prat Lauréate^︎︎︎, The Bredin Prat Foundation

2019  Induction to National Academy of Design

2018  Rees Visionary Award, Amref Health Africa

2011  Murphy and Cadogan Fellowship Award, The San Francisco Foundation

2010—2012  Merit Scholarship, California College of the Arts

Public Collections

Amon Carter Museum of American Art, ^{Fort Worth, Texas}
The Art Institute of Chicago, ^Illinois
Baltimore Museum of Art, ^Maryland
Birmingham Museum of Art, ^Alabama
The Contemporary Museum, ^{Honolulu, Hawaii}
The Dean Collection, ^{New York, New York}
Frye Art Museum, ^{Seattle, Washington}
The Giuseppe Iannaccone Collection, ^{Milan, Italy}
Harvard Art Museums, ^{Cambridge, Massachusetts}
Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, ^{Annandale-on-Hudson, NY}
Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, ^{Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC}
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, ^{Hanover, New Hampshire}
Institute of Contemporary Art, ^{Boston, Massachusetts}
Institute of Contemporary Art, ^{Miami, Florida}
Maier Museum of Art, Randolph College, ^{Lynchburg, Virginia}
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ^{New York, New York}
Mississippi Museum of Art, ^{Jackson, Mississippi}
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, ^California
Museum of Modern Art, ^{New York, New York}
The National Museum of African Art, ^{Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC}
National Portrait Gallery, ^{London, United Kingdom}
National Portrait Gallery, ^{Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC}
New Orleans Museum of Art, ^{New Orleans, Louisiana}
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, ^{Philadelphia, Pennsylvania}
Philadelphia Museum of Art, ^Pennsylvania
The Pizzuti Collection, Columbus Museum of Art, ^{Columbus, Ohio}
Princeton University Art Museum, ^{New Jersey}
RISD Museum of Art, ^{Providence, Rhode Island}
Spencer Museum of Art, ^{Lawrence, Kansas}
The Studio Museum in Harlem, ^{New York, New York}
Whitney Museum of American Art, ^{New York, New York}

One-Artist Exhibitions

2022—2023  New Work: Toyin Ojih Odutola^︎︎︎, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California (3 September 2022 — 22 January 2023)

2021—2022  Toyin Ojih Odutola: A Countervailing Theory^︎︎︎, Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC

2021  Toyin Ojih Odutola: A Countervailing Theory^︎︎︎, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg, Denmark

2020—2021  Toyin Ojih Odutola: A Countervailing Theory^︎︎︎, The Curve, Barbican Centre, London, UK

2020  Tell Me A Story, I Don’t Care If It’s True^︎︎︎, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, New York
2020  Tell Me A Story, I Don’t Care if It’s True, Jack Shainman Gallery (Online virtual exhibition)

2018  When Legends Die, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, New York
2018  Toyin Ojih Odutola: The Firmament^︎︎︎, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
2018  Toyin Ojih Odutola: Testing the Name︎︎︎, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia

2017—2018  Toyin Ojih Odutola: To Wander Determined^︎︎︎, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York

2016—2017  A Matter of Fact: Toyin Ojih Odutola, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, California

2015—2016  Of Context and Without, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, New York

2015  Toyin Ojih Odutola: Untold Stories, Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri

2014  Like the Sea, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, New York

2013—2014  The Constant Wrestler, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA), Indianapolis, Indiana

2013  My Country Has No Name, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, New York

2011  (MAPS), Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, New York

Projects

2021—  Contributing Column, Elephant Magazine (ongoing)

2014  The Art Assignment, PBS Digital Studios

Teaching, Lectures & Dialogues

2022  Panel Discussion with Dr. Leigh Raiford for EKO 2050: Other Futures Symposium^︎︎︎, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
2022  Panel Discussion with Erin J. Gilbert^︎︎︎, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC

2020  Panel Discussion with Erin J. Gilbert^︎︎︎, Barbican Centre, London, UK

2019  Graduate Seminar Panel Discussion with Dr. Leigh Raiford and Alexandra Bell, University of California Berkeley, African American Studies Department, Berkeley, CA
2019  National Museum of African Art’s Lecture and Panel Discussion, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

2018  Panel Discussion with Zadie Smith^︎︎︎, The Drawing Center, New York, NY
2018  Drawing Intensive Course, Barnard College, New York, NY
2018  Artist Talk, Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH
2018  Keynote Lecture at Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD), Atlanta, GA
2018  Artist Talk, Manifesta 12, Palermo, Italy
2018  Artists’ Panel Discussion with Rujeko Hockley, Yaa Gyasi and Texas Isaiah, Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY
2018  Artist Lecture, Barnard College, New York, NY
2018  Artists’ Panel Discussion with Dr. Kellie Jones and Mary Sibande, Barnard College, New York, NY

2017  Artist Lecture, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO
2017  Artist Lecture, University of California Berkeley, African American and African Diaspora Studies Department, Berkeley, CA
2017  Drawing Intensive Course, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass, CO

2016  Artist Talk, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
2016  Artist Talk, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2016  Visiting Artist Lecture, Parsons School of Art and Design, New York, NY

2016  Keynote Address, The Dark Room Fourth Exposure Symposium, Mount Holyoke, South Hadley, MA

2015  Artists’ Panel Discussion with Kevin Beasley and Todd Gray, Maier Museum of Art, Randolph College, VA

Bibliography

(Surveys, Monographs, Exhibition Catalogs)

2022  Ojih Odutola, Toyin. Satellite. Rite Editions & Jack Shainman Gallery.
2022  Phaidon Editors. PRIME: Art’s Next Generation. Phaidon Press.

2021  Ojih Odutola, Toyin, et al. Toyin Ojih Odutola: The UmuEze Amara Clan and the House of Obafemi. Rizzoli Electra.
2021  Ojih Odutola, Toyin and Reginald Moore. Toyin Ojih Odutola: Tell Me A Story, I Don't Care If It's True. Pacific.
2021  Tovey, Russell, and Robert Diament. Talk Art. Hachette UK, 2021: 88–89, illustrated.
2021  Phaidon Editors. Vitamin D3: Today’s Best in Contemporary Drawing. Phaidon Press, 2021: 180–183, illustrated.

2020  Ojih Odutola, Toyin, Zadie Smith and Lotte Johnson. Toyin Ojih Odutola: A Countervailing Theory. Barbican Centre.
2020  Sanders, Phil. Prints and Their Makers. Princeton Architectural Press, 2020: 138, illustrated.
2020 Green, Sarah Urist. You Are an Artist^︎︎︎. Penguin Books, 2020: 165–168, illustrated.
2020  Marashi, Amir. A Woman’s Right to Pleasure. Black Book.
2020  Drew, Kimberly and Jenna Wortham. Black Futures^︎︎︎. One World, Penguin Random House, 2020: 189, illustrated.

2019 Gingeras, Alison. Unrealism: New Figurative Painting, Rizzoli Electa, 2019: 258–265, 336, illustrated.
2019  Ojih Odutola, Toyin, Dr. Leigh Raiford, Emily Kuhlmann. A Matter of Fact: Toyin Ojih Odutola. Museum of the African Diaspora. Cameron Books.

2018  Gilman, Claire. For Opacity: Elijah Burgher, Toyin Ojih Odtuola, and Nathaniel Mary Quinn. The Drawing Center, October 12, 2018–February 3, 2019: 46–71, illustrated.
2018  Fitzgerald, Shannon, and Katherine Navarro. Shifting Gaze: A Reconstruction of the Black & Hispanic Body in Contemporary Art. Mennello Museum of Art, 2018: 39–41, illustrated.
2018  Pedrosa, Adriano, Ayrson Heráclito, Hélio Menezes, Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Tomás Toledo. Histórias Afro-Atlânticas (Afro-Atlantic Histories)^︎︎︎, Volume 1, Museum of Art São Paulo (MASP), Instituto Tomie Ohtake, 2018: 300–301, illustrated.

2016  Morse, Trent. Ballpoint Art. London: Laurence King, 2016: 100-105, illustrated.
2016  Yates, Joey and Aldy Milliken. Material Issue. Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, Kentucky, 2016: 28–29, illustrated.

2015  McClusky, Pamela, and Erika Dalya Massaquoi. Disguise: Masks and Global African Art. 2015: 90, illustrated.
2015  Monica, Lauren P. Della. Bodies of Work: Contemporary Figurative Painting. [S.l.]: Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 2015: 173–177, illustrated.

2014  W. Rod Faulds, Sybille Canthal Welter. south X east: Contemporary Southeastern Art. Ritter Art Gallery, Schmidt Center Gallery, and Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Florida Atlantic University, 2014: 30–31, illustrated.

2013  Bliss, Sharon E. The Moment for Ink. San Francisco State University, Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Silicon Valley Asian Art Center: 134–135, illustrated.

2012  Van Dyke, Kristina and Bisi Silva. The Progress of Love^︎︎︎. Menil Collection.
2012  Fore^︎︎︎. Studio Museum of Harlem. 
2012  Ojih Odutola, Toyin. Alphabet: A Selected Index of Anecdotes and Drawings, Second Edition.

2023  Armina Howada Mussa, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Jennifer Packer, Jem Perucchini, Anika Roach, Lynette Yiadom-Boaky^︎︎︎, Corvi-Mora, London, UK (20 Janyuar — 25 February)

2022—2023  Afro-Atlantic Histories^︎︎︎, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California (11 December 2022 — 10 September 2023)

2022  16^th Biennale de Lyon^︎︎︎, Lyon, France
2022  Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami Collection^︎︎︎, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Florida
2022  The Condition of Being Addressable^︎︎︎, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
2022  Living Histories^︎︎︎, Frick Madison, New York, New York

2022  Afro-Atlantic Histories^︎︎︎, Smithsonian National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
2022  Elegies: Still Lifes in Contemporary Art^︎︎︎, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, California
2022  Uncanny Interiors^︎︎︎, Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York

2021—2022  Icons of Colour: Portraits of Brent’s Change Makers^︎︎︎, The Library at Willesden Green, Brent Museum, London, UK
2021—2022  Afro-Atlantic Histories^︎︎︎, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas
2021—2022  Black American Portraits^︎︎︎, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California

2021  Unexpected Surfaces^︎︎︎, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2021  Plural Possibilities & The Female Body, Henry Art Gallery^︎︎︎, Seattle, Washington
2021  PORTALS^︎︎︎, Hellenic Parliament + ΝΕΟΝ,  former Public Tobacco Factory, Athens, Greece

2020—2021  Defying the Shadow^︎︎︎, RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island
2020—2021  i’m yours: Encounters with Art in Our Times^︎︎︎, ICA Boston, Massachusetts
2020—2021  UBUNTU: Harry David Art Collection, National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens, Greece
2020—2021 Breakfast Under the Tree^︎︎︎, Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate, United Kingdom

2020  Jean Francois Prat Prize, Sélection de l'édition 2020 Exhibition, Bredin Prat Foundation, Paris, France  
2020  Nine Lives^︎︎︎, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, Illinois  
2020  Duro Oluwo: Seeing Chicago^︎︎︎, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois

2019—2020  Nicolas Party: Pastel^︎︎︎, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York
2019—2020  EMBODY^︎︎︎, Mandeville Gallery, Union College, Schenectady, New York
2019—2020  I Am...: Contemporary Women Artists of Africa^︎︎︎, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C.

2019  Prospect, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, California
2019  Future Generation Art Prize @ Venice 2019^︎︎︎, 58th Venice Biennale, Palazzo Ca’Tron, IUAV University, Venice, Italy
2019  Plumb Line: Charles White and the Contemporary^︎︎︎, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California
2019  Drawn Together Again, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York
2019  Future Generation Art Prize Exhibition of Shortlisted Artists^︎︎︎, PinchukArtCentre, Kiev, Ukraine
2019  Show Me as I Want to Be Seen^︎︎︎, The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, California
2019  Damn! The Defiant^︎︎︎, Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, New York, New York
2019  Art on Paper 2019: The 45th Exhibition, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina
2019  Presence: Meditations on the Spelman College Collection, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia

2018—2019  Pulse, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas
2018—2019  For Opacity: Elijah Burgher, Toyin Ojih Odutola, and Nathaniel Mary Quinn^︎︎︎, The Drawing Center, New York, New York
2018—2019  In This Imperfect Present Moment^︎︎︎, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington

2018  Histórias Afro-Atlânticas (Afro-Atlantic Histories)^︎︎︎, Museum of Art São Paulo (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil
2018  12^th Manifesta Biennial^︎︎︎, Orto Botanico di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
2018  Orientation: The Racial Imaginary Institute Biennial^︎︎︎, created by Claudia Rankine, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, New York
2018  The Racial Imaginary Institute: On Whiteness, The Kitchen︎︎︎, New York, New York
2018  Legacy of the Cool: A Tribute to Barkley L. Hendricks^︎︎︎, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, Massachusetts

2017  Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa's Arts, National Museum of African Art (Smithsonian), Washington, DC
2017  Ethics of Depiction: Landscape, Still Life, Human^︎︎︎, Oakland University Art Gallery, Rochester, Michigan
2017  Dialogues in Drawing, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2017  A Painting Today^︎︎︎, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa 
2017  Vanishing Points^︎︎︎, James Cohan Gallery, New York, New York
2017  Political Discourse, University Hall Gallery, UMass Boston, Massachusetts

2016 Africa Forecast: Fashioning Contemporary Life^︎︎︎, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia
2016  Material Issue^︎︎︎, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, Kentucky
2016  Stark Imagery: The Male Nude in Art, William Benton Museum of Art, Storrs, Connecticut
2016  Making Her Mark^︎︎︎, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connecticut
2016 The Mecca, JCT Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2016  Black: Color, Material, Concept^︎︎︎, Studio Museum Harlem, New York

2015—2016  Disguise: Masks and Global African Art^︎︎︎, Seattle Art Museum, Washington  
2015—2016  Disguise: Masks and Global African Art^︎︎︎, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, California
2015—2016  Disguise: Masks and Global African Art^︎︎︎, Brooklyn Museum, New York

2015  Interventions in Printmaking: Three Generations of African American Women^︎︎︎, Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania
2015  SELF: Portraits of Artists in Their Absence, National Academy Museum of Art, New York
2015  Status Quo, Jack Shainman Gallery’s The School, Kinderhook, New York
2015  Breath/Breadth: Contemporary American Black Male Identity, Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, Lynchburg, Virginia
2015  Young, Gifted, and Black, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2014  Black Eye, Curated by Nicola Vassell, Concept NV, New York, New York
2014  I See You, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Art, Charlotte, North Carolina
2014  southXeast: Southeastern Contemporary Art, Schmidt Center Gallery and Ritter Art Gallery, Florida Atlantic University, School of the Arts, Boca Raton, Florida
2014  Mise En Scène, Jack Shainman Gallery’s The School, Kinderhook, New York
2014  The Mosaic Project: Ojih Odutola & Panas, Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

2013—2014 The Six Draughtsmen, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), Brooklyn, New York

2013  Black Hair: Black Identity, Iona College Chapman Gallery, New Rochelle, New York
2013  Singular Masses: An Examination of Racial Identity, Hyde Gallery, Memphis College of Art, Memphis, Tennessee
2013  The Moment for Ink, Chinese Cultural Center, San Francisco, California
2013  Ballpoint Pen Drawing Since 1950^︎︎︎, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
2013  Seven Sisters, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, California

2012—2013  Fore^︎︎︎, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
2012—2013  The Progress of Love^︎︎︎, Menil Collection, Houston, Texas

2012  Afro: Black Identity in America and Brazil^︎︎︎, Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico
2012  Falling Through Space Drawn by the Line, UB Art Galleries, University at Buffalo, New York

2011  The Black Portrait, Rush Gallery, New York, New York
2011  Frontrunners: The San Francisco Foundation 2011 Murphy & Cadogan Fellowship Awards Exhibition, SOMArts, San Francisco, California
2011  Geoffrey Chadsey, Toyin Ojih Odutola and Artifacts from Nagaland, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, Curated by Claude Simard
2011  Ouroboros: An Exhibition & Reading, California College of the Arts Writer's Studio, San Francisco, Curated by Toyin Ojih Odutola and Nick Johnson
2011  Selections on View, Contemporary Galleries, Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama

2007  Yale/Norfolk Summer Art Fellowship Student Exhibition, Norfolk, Connecticut