Slawn made his auction debut with Sotheby’s in 2022 as part of Skepta’s Contemporary Curated sale (with his work Bobo n Jarrad Go To Church selling for 4 times above its estimate) and has since experienced a meteoric rise, becoming one of the most coveted and trailblazing artists.
At only 23 years old, he has achieved several accolades in this impressively short span, from being the youngest and first Nigerian-born artist to be invited to design the BRIT Awards, to collaborating with the likes of Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton and Off-White, he has garnered fans around the world, including A$AP Rocky, Central Cee, Mia Khalifa and Wizkid.
Not only a lucrative artist, Slawn co-founded the Nigerian streetwear brand Motherlan and has taken the fashion world by storm, collaborating with Flannels in the summer of 2023 for his exhibition, The Art Kiosk, working with Fin Flint for Dover Street Market and partnering with eBay for an auction of two sneaker masterpieces. This comes at a time when there has been a recent massive upsurge of fashion designers collaborating with African musicians and artists – from Amoako Boafo and Dior’s Kim Jones to Burna Boy and Burberry, to Tems and Tommy Hilfiger, to Davido and Puma.
Slawn’s work Alara, Ajero and Orangun (est. £7,000 – 9,000) is a contemplation of the state of the artist’s home country of Nigeria and her ongoing struggle to eschew a colonial legacy. The title of the work is taken from a Yoruba mythic tale of three triplets who each founded important kingdoms, commonly referred to as the Alara, Ajero and Orangun. Adorned by a dappled cotton wax print textile, (the green cloth itself imbued with a poignant colonial legacy), Slawn overlays this textile with three of his hallmark figures with exaggerated and distorted facial features.
‘I am not just Nigerian. I am Yoruba. This work is an expression of my identity.’
Slawn
Slawn inscribes the reverse of the work with the following text:
My Nigerian Hell,
Love Yourself Hate Myself,
Amen,
Make Sure You Always,
A Nigerian Heaven/A Nigerian Hell,
As Above, So Below.
This evocative text encapsulates a spirit of contemplation, underscored by a sense of apathy, regarding the state of the artist’s home country and her ongoing struggle to eschew a colonial legacy. In a gesture akin to that most notably championed by Nigerian contemporary juggernauts such as Kehinde Wiley and Yinka Shonibare, the present lot is adorned by a dappled cotton wax print textile, the green cloth itself imbued with a poignant colonial legacy. Based on Indonesian batik fabrics, this body of highly decorative patterned textiles were first brought to Africa by Dutch traders, eventually adopted by Africans as a symbol of individuality and resistance against colonial rule. The most coveted of these fabrics are still produced in Holland, underscoring the contradictions of a postcolonial existence. Slawn’s earliest memories of seeing this cloth are associated with his upbringing in Lagos, where as a child, Slawn would survey the fabric-covered floor of his grandmother’s atelier. Memories of his childhood in Lagos are coloured by consistent and almost universal encounters with this cloth. Slawn overlays this textile with three of his hallmark figures: an interpolation of icons of visual culture such as Mickey Mouse, with exaggerated and distorted facial features. The title of the work is taken from a Yoruba mythic tale of three triplets who each founded important kingdoms, commonly referred to as the Alara, Ajero and Orangun. The result of these allusions to colonialism, blackness and popular culture is a conceptually dense and cohesive work which simultaneously maintains the artist’s quintessential studied nonchalance.
Also joining Slawn in the auction are works by Ouattara Watts and Jack Kabangu plus many more.
Modern & Contemporary African Art, 21st March, 2PM Sotheby’s London, New Bond St Galleries
