Jadé Fadojutimi: Jesture

Jadé Fadojutimi: Jesture is a publication produced by Pippy Houldsworth Gallery to accompany the second solo exhibition at the gallery of new paintings by London-based artist Jadé Fadojutimi, presented in Fall 2020.

The word "Jesture" in the title of the exhibition and publication evokes a sense of the absurd, responding to the disruption of daily rhythms arising from forced isolation during lockdown. Central to Fadojutimi’s practice is a repeated questioning of identity, its fluid nature, and how the understanding of notions of pleasure, desire, and choice are integral to a sense of self. Addressing the exchange between an individual and their environment, the vivid choices of color and form derive from the associative qualities of the special items that capture her attention and the memories they invoke.

Fadojutimi’s studio is filled with objects, drawings, and writings that evoke nostalgic pleasure. Powerful memories, experienced while listening to film, animation, and video game soundtracks, transport Fadojutimi to the first time she encountered them, eliciting a response that is experienced through intense color. The synthesis of these various influences, through which Fadojutimi understands her sense of self, is transformed into large-scale gestural paintings charged with energy and emotion.

Described by Fadojutimi as "environments," these complex compositions, neither wholly abstract nor figurative, are built up with layers of oil paint, interrupted by the more linear mark-making made possible by her recent adoption of oil pastels. The introduction of new materials into her painting has enabled Fadojutimi to think more broadly about palette, composition, and depth, while translating the spontaneity of her drawing onto the canvas.

In her essay for the publication, From Life – Thoughts on the paintings of Jadé Fadojutimi, writer, critic, and editor-at-large of frieze magazine Jennifer Higgie writes, “In these paintings, the world, in all of its chaotic glory, exists as an intimation. Art is not an explanation: it’s a shot of energy, a flash of colour; a shimmer, a reaction, a line thrown out to see who might pick it up. Pictures are made by people and, like people, their tone can switch direction in the blink of an eye. A painting is a very human thing: they’re allowed to be messy. Jadé tells me that her aim is for ‘deep emotion, not deep description’.”

This, the artist’s first published book, designed by A Practice for Everyday Life and printed by PUSH, London, has been co-published by Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, and Anomie Publishing, London.