Igi Lola Ayedun is a multimedia artist and gallery owner who works with painting, video, 3D digital sculpture, photography and sound. Founding director of HOA, an organization dedicated to a decolonial perspective on contemporary Latino art, focused on artists from the global majority. Her artistic practice is guided by the cultural and biological potential of colours, in particular, the colour blue is at the centre of her current research, exploring global indigo routes, the historical legacy of lapis lazuli and the power of minerals to reconstruct life – goes through the artistic materiality itself and the emotional-visual descriptions of her dream. More recently, her research has been incorporating images created by artificial intelligence programs and the interpretation of brain impulses as a way of overcoming the optical limits of photographic cameras or even the ocular system.
Her work has already been exhibited at Pivô/IMS (2023), winner of the Bolsa ZUM photography prize from the Moreira Salles Institute, MAR – Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro (2022), Mendes Wood DM Brussels (2022), MIS – Museu da Imagem e Som (2021), Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo (2021), Christie’s Rockefeller Plaza, New York (2021), Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2020), ETOPIA Centro de Arte y Tecnología, Zaragoza ( 2019), Galeria Baró, São Paulo (2019), Konvent 0, Barcelona (2018), SP-Arte Performance (2018), Teatro Oficina, São Paulo (2017) and Oficina Oswald de Andrade, São Paulo (2009). Ayedun believes that the juxtaposition of ancient and contemporary technologies is a spiritual way of preserving African ancestry for the future.
Solo exhibitions
2023
– Eclosão de um sonho, uma fantasia – a exposição, HOA Galeria, São Paulo, Brasil.
– Eclosão de um sonho, uma fantasia, Anexa_CCBB, CCBB, São Paulo, Brasil.
2022
– Women of color y otros clichés. WESERHALLE, Berlin, Germany.
2021
– Imenso é o mundo que ainda guardo em mim, HOA Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil.
Group shows
2024
– Porvir, curadoria Paula Plee, Gruta, São Paulo, Brasil.
2023
– Something Else III, Cairo Biennale – Session 14, Cairo, Egypt
– Entre nós: Dez anos de Bolsa ZUM/IMS [Between Out Knots: 10 years of ZUM/IMS Grant, curadoria [curated by] Thyago Nogueira, Pivô Arte e Pesquisa, São Paulo, Brazil.
– Do vôo às narinas respirar, braços largos, mensagens ao vento [From flight to nostrils, breathe, arms wide, messages in the wind], curated by Guilherme Teixeira. HOA Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil.
2022
– Possible Agreements, curated by Thiago de Paula Souza. Mendes Wood DM, Brussels, Belgium.
2021
– Arte e tecnologia, MIS – Museu da Imagem e do Som, São Paulo, Brazil.
– Enciclopédia Negra, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
– Knotted ties, 1-54 New York, Christie’s Rockefeller Plaza, New York, USA.
2020
– Body Fragility. HOA Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil.
– Antonio Henrique Amaral: Agglomeration, curadoria [curated by] Paulo Miyada. Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil.
– From flight to nostrils, breathe, arms wide, messages in the wind. HOA Galeria, São Paulo Brazil.
2019
– Estive presente em testemunho. Programa FUGA – Etopia Centro de Arte y Tecnología. Zaragoza, Spain.
– A noite não adormecerá jamais nos olhos nossos. Baró Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil.
2018
– Vesícula, curated by Igi Ayedun. Espaço Breu, São Paulo, Brazil.
Awards
2022
10a Bolsa de Fotografia ZUM/IMS [10th ZUM/IMS Photography Fellowship]
Residencies
2018
Konvent Zero, Barcelona, Spain.
