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Tunji Adeniyi-Jones is a London-born, Brooklyn-based artist of Nigerian heritage who works in the mediums of painting, drawing and printmaking to explore and express his own artistic and cultural heritage. His works emerge from what he describes as cultural addition, combination and collaboration and are layered with multicultural references. He is inspired by Western artists like Henri Matisse and William Blake, as well as Nigerian artist and pioneer of African Modernism, Ben Enwonwu. Other influences include West African mythology and storytelling—specifically from his own Nigerian Yoruba heritage—the importance of dance and body language in a continent that has over 1000 spoken languages, and historical and contemporary perceptions of the Black body.

Often beginning with smaller studies in watercolor and ink pen, Adeniyi-Jones works with a varied color palette to represent different seasons or times of day. He paints in series, depicting figures in twos, threes and larger groups, finding that repetition allows him to fine tune his themes and become more experimental. Adeniyi-Jones focuses on the human form as a tool for storytelling—depicting muscular, statuesque, youthful bodies as architypes of virtuous qualities, positioned either in classical poses or captured in elegant and rhythmic mid-dance. ‘Charm, Honour & Grace’ (2021), which is from ‘The Virtues’ series, presents a trio of androgynous Black figures, balanced between male and female energies with equal measures of strength and grace. They float before a rich, flame-like background of foliage rendered in deep purple and indigo with highlights in hot pink—perhaps alluding to a nocturnal scene.

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