TABOO brings together two of the UK’s most unfiltered artists, Opake and Slawn, in a new collaboration that probes where we draw the line between the explicit, the acceptable, and the off-limits.
The project began yesterday 15th September 2025 with Opake’s guest edit of The Big Issue*, designing the front cover and interviewing Slawn in a raw and honest conversation that spans labels, censorship, addiction, faith, and why rule-breaking can be a route to truth. BUY HERE
The collaboration continues with the release of hand-painted skateboards, original paintings, and editioned prints, available through Slawn’s website on Thursday 25th September. In early October, a surprise London pop-up at an undisclosed location will bring the works together in person, where hand-embellished artist-proof prints will be available exclusively on the night, alongside a limited-edition T-shirt co-branded with The Big Issue.
For TABOO, Opake unveils meticulously detailed Hentai-inspired drawings and paintings to question who defines obscenity, and why some images are labelled taboo while others are not. Cutting across and into these compositions, Slawn overpaints with high-velocity, clown-like figures, from scrawled masks to punched-in smiles. His interventions flip from seductive to satirical. The layered images play with the tension between what is hidden and what is exposed. The collaboration grew out of trust and friendship between two artists who see themselves as outliers, having come to art without formal training. The work is less about business than about sealing a genuine connection, with two artists recognising each other’s honesty, seeing eye to eye, and choosing to create fearlessly together.
“I have never looked at Hentai as porn. I see drawing, discipline, exaggeration, storytelling. The minute you stick a label like ‘taboo’ on an image, people stop seeing the craft. TABOO is about removing that label and asking better questions.” — Opake
“The clown is a truth-teller. It can say the serious thing as a joke. I like stepping into a picture that looks one way and turning it into something you did not expect, funny, a bit wrong, but honest.” — Slawn
Venue and dates
Publication: The Big Issue interview published on 15th September Drop: 25th September via olaoluslawn.com Exhibition: London, early October 2025. Venue details, date and opening times to follow – keep an eye on @olaoluslawn & @opake_art
*The Big Issue partnership is for the 8th September guest-edited issue
About the artists
Opake (Ed Worley) is a London-based artist whose work merges graffiti, pop art, and personal
reflection, reimagining familiar cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse and Pink Panther to
explore themes of mental health, addiction, and the collapse of pop culture. Describing his style
as “the disintegration of pop culture,” he uses bold colours, repetition, and overlapping imagery
to evoke the cycles of addiction and the chaos of recovery, drawing on his own experiences of
drug-induced psychosis.
Slawn (Olaolu Akeredolu-Ale) is a London-based Nigerian artist whose work fuses street art withAbstract Expressionism, drawing on Yoruba heritage and contemporary social themes.
Beginning his practice in Lagos at Wafflesncream, Nigeria’s first skate shop, he later co-founded
the apparel group Motherlan before turning to painting during the 2020 London lockdown. His
debut exhibition at Truman Brewery in 2021 introduced his mix of playful visuals and social
critique, followed by an auction debut at Sotheby’s in 2022 and designing the 2023 Brit Awards
set and statuette.
