1-54 London 2025

Ayoola Gbolahan

Ayoola Gbolahan (b. 1977, Ibadan, Nigeria) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Lagos. A graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University (2001), his practice explores human behavior, anthropology, and spirituality. Raised at the intersection of Christianity and traditional worship, his work reflects cultural dualities and reverence for ancestry, most notably in his Blue Woman Series.

Working in expressive abstraction and indigenous writing systems, Gbolahan examines colonial legacies, spiritual symbolism, and visual culture. His work has been exhibited at 1-54 (London, 2023), AG18 Gallery (Vienna, 2024), and the Dakar Biennale OFF (2024), and is represented in major collections. He has collaborated with global brands including Coca-Cola, Adidas, and Netflix, and in 2015 was commissioned by the British High Commission to paint Queen Elizabeth II.

Roisin Jones

Roisin Jones (b. London, UK) is an interdisciplinary artist working across performance, video, installation, photography, and archival research. Her practice explores the body and memory as living archives, reflecting on identity, belonging, and resilience. Rooted in her British-Caribbean heritage, she weaves folklore, symbolism, and ancestral memory into narratives that embrace love as a radical act of resistance and healing.

Through archival research, material experimentation, and performance, Jones creates immersive works that bridge personal and collective histories. Her layered, multidimensional practice invites audiences to engage with vulnerability, empathy, and hope.

Yanma Fofana

Yanma Fofana (b. 1999, Paris; lives and works in France) creates paintings rooted in family intimacy and the fragility of memory. Drawing from archives and daily life, her canvases capture suspended moments through processes of layering, erasure, and reworking.

Fofana has exhibited at the Museum of the History of Immigration (Paris), Modern Animals Gallery (Zurich), and Otis College of Art and Design (Los Angeles). Recipient of the Rose Taupin Dora Bianka Painting Prize and Bredin-Prat creation grant, she has also completed residencies at the Academy of Fine Arts (Vienna) and the Château de la Haute Borde.

Her chromatic worlds—violet, brown, and aqueous tones—render the intimate monumental. Everyday gestures and objects become symbols of heritage and lineage, transforming personal memory into universal meditation on presence, absence, and lived time.