Raimi Olakunle Gbadamosi (born 1965 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

) is a contemporary British conceptual artist and writer. His work addresses themes of identity and art theory, using his trademark motif of yellow, white and black.

Life and work

His middle name stems from the words "Ola" meaning "wealth" and "Kunle" meaning "surplus at home" in

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

. Gbadamosi attained his doctorate in fine art from

The Slade The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, in 2001. He also has an MA in fine art from

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

(1995) and a BA in fine art from

Staffordshire University , mottoeng = Dare to know , type = Public , endowment = £70 million (2015) , administrative_staff = 1,375 , chancellor = Francis Fitzherbert, 15th Baron Stafford , vice_chancellor = Professor Martin Jones , ...

(1994). Gbadamosi taught fine art as an honorary research fellow at the Slade School of Art and has also curated various group exhibitions. As a writer, he has had his work published in the arts journal ''

Third Text ''Third Text'' is a leading peer-reviewed academic journal covering art in a global context. After founder and editor Rasheed Araeen's earlier art magazine ''Black Phoenix'', which started in 1978 and published only three issues, ''Third Text'' ...

'', among other publications. He has also lived in Johannesburg, South Africa where he taught fine art at the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...

and at the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...

. He left the University of Pretoria in 2018. According to Zoe Li, of

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

: "Raimi's work investigates the complexity of social and cultural politics, often challenging our view on ethnicity, race and culture." Key pieces include "Swadsquad", a three-sided chess board. In 2007 he participated with commissioned artists at

Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery The Box is a museum, gallery and archive in Plymouth, Devon, England, opened in 2020 housing a collection of about 2 million items. The core of the building was previously Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery which closed in 2016. The building wa ...

, where he created an alternative tour of the museum entitled ''Drakes Circus'', drawing attention to objects of interest relating to

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. Examples of Gbadamosi's work are held in several public art collections, including the

Henry Moore Institute Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

, Novas in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and the Centre for Contemporary Art,

University of Central Lancashire , mottoeng = "From the Earth to the Sun" , established = as Institution for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledgere-established 1992 (University status granted) , type = Public , chancellor ...

. Through his website, spectators may download and keep 'Free' artworks by the artist, predominantly in the form of written text. Gbadamosi has exhibited his work throughout Britain as well as internationally. In 2020 Gbadamosi was selected to judge the Sasol New Signatures art award. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the competition was cancelled.

References

External links

Online Artwork
1965 births Living people Black British artists Artists from Manchester English contemporary artists Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University Alumni of Staffordshire University English people of Yoruba descent Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Academic staff of the University of the Witwatersrand Academic staff of the University of Pretoria 21st-century English male artists {{UK-artist-stub