Kemi Onabulé
Statement
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Born 1995 in London,
Kemi Onabule is a painter and printmaker living and working in London. Since graduating from her BA in Fine Art Painting at Wimbledon College Of Art in 2016, she has been included in the Hix Award 2017 and the Ingram Young Artist Award 2017 and recently had her debut Solo Show: ‘Arrival On The Beach’ 2020 at Guts Gallery. She subsequently had her debut in-person solo show at Sim Smith Gallery in the autumn of 2022. In her work she explores the human relationship to nature and its changing role in our lives, our effect on it and the colonial histories that are intertwined with our current ecological predicament.
She is influenced by her Greek, English and Nigerian heritage and their ancient cultures, taking aesthetic and symbolic aspects from each to create a visual language that moves across the various mediums she uses.
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Kemi is currently represented by Sim Smith gallery in London
Education
2016 BA (Hons), Fine Art: Painting, Wimbledon College of Art
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Solo Exhibitions
2023 'The Lunatics' Guts Gallery
2022 'Arcadia' Sim Smith London
2020 Kemi Onabule: Arrival on the Beach, Guts Gallery
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Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 ‘Matches Struck Unexpectedly In The Dark’ One Room Gallery, London.
2022 ‘Shrubs’ Night Gallery, Los Angeles
2022 ‘Paper’ Beers Gallery, London
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2021 Saw It Hang Down There, Bode Projects, Berlin
2021 Reality Check, Guts Gallery/Anderson Contemporary, London
2021 Into The Light of The Present Day, Oliver Projects, London
2021 Underpinned by Movements of Freighters, The Florence Trust, London
2021 Cluster-Phobia, Newington Green Meeting House, London
2021 Get A Load of This, Daniel Raphael Gallery, London
2021 For The Many Not The Few, Guts Gallery, London
2020 Untitled (But Loved), Bosse & Baum, London
2020 In Response, The Viewing Room, London
2019 They Catch Feelings, I Catch Bodies, Sim Smith Gallery, London,
2016 Wimbledon College of Art BA Degree Show, London
2015 The Contemporary Portrait, Thompson’s Gallery, London
Art Fairs
2023 Art Brussles with Sim Smith
2021 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair with Oliver Projects
2020 FNB Art Joburg, with Bode Projects
Awards
2021 Jackson's Painting Prize, Shortlisted
2017 Hix Award, Shortlisted
2017 Ingram Young Artist Prize, Shortlisted
2016 Clyde & Co Art Awards, Shortlisted