Biography
b. 1985, Ilé-Ifẹ̀, Nigeria
Based in New York
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
Blenheim Art Foundation, Woodstock, United Kingdom
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
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 at 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
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
The Pizzuti Collection of 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 New Work: Toyin Ojih Odutola,
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 3rd (September 2022 — 22nd January 2023)
2021—2022 Toyin Ojih Odutola: A Countervailing Theory,
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 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, CA2016 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
Group Exhibitions
2022 16th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France (14 September — 31 December)
2022 Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami Collection, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Florida (12 May — 30 October)
2022 Living Histories, Frick Madison, New York, New York (31 March — 11 September)
2022 Afro-Atlantic Histories, 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
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 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, National Museum of African Art (Smithsonian), 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 12th 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 and Gordon Parks: A Harlem Family 1967, 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