A Star is Born: Jadé Fadojutimi comes to Gagosian in New York

Jadé Fadojutimi: DWELVE: A Goosebump in Memory
Gagosian
522 West 21st Street, New York
November 7–December 21, 2024

By EDWARD WAISNIS November 29, 2024

Twenty-one consistently large canvases and eighty-four works on paper comprise Jadé Fadojutimis’ New York debut. The sheer scale alone marks this as a notable arrival. The title DWELVE, chosen by the artist, a multifactorial amalgamate of ‘dwell’ and ‘delve’, offers a dual gauntlet of habitation blended with a yearning toward investigation. Fadojutimi working methods embodies these competing impulses, executed on an iPad, time-honored paper and near-monumental canvases; the later executed in an amalgam of acrylic, oil, oil pastel and, from time-to-time, oil bar.

Fadojutimi’s expressions are imbued with evocations from the grand era of abstraction by way of de Kooning, Krasner and Mitchell, whilst lozenge-like flourishes recall Gorky through light touch and prodigious placement.

Then there are the wide-range of natural sources and environments, from quotidian flower beds, aquatic worlds activated by sweeps of syrupy glazes, to ever-expanding celestial universes that contribute another facet to the work. With the added wholly artificial self-acnowledged grip anime has over Fadojutimi the works deliver a heady brew.

Fadojutimi has invariably claimed color as her paramount driver from the get-go. Her raw shades, edging toward neon, recall the high intensity found in Pop, while the compositions hark to a Nouveau-Secessionist inflected graceful sinuousness. Oddly, it would not be irrational to see these works installed alongside the fine de siecle Baroque of Klimt, Kandinsky and Schiele at the Neue Galerie.

Emitting luminosity so incandescent–akin to fireflies in a bottle–that one might envision the paintings rendered in stained-glass, and the handing does recall the cadence of chapel fenestration.

Fadojutimi has spoken about the role of music in her practice, particularly her fondness for soundtracks (often from anime, of which she has expressed passion) and this indebtedness carries into the depictions of what might be worlds inhabited by avatars that waver with musicality.

Fadojutimi has eschewed the distinctly resonant titles she has shown a proclivity for previously, by and large, with only two of the paintings bear titles with the remaining majority bearing the moniker: Untitled. I wonder if the pressure of production. One result this has produced is that attempting to write about the work is made more difficult by this lack of identifying tags.

Jadé Fadojutimi, Untitled, 2024, acrylic, oil and oil pastel on canvas, 98 12 x 68 7/8 inches (250 x 175 cm)
© Jadé Fadojutimi Photo: Mark Blower Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian
 

Untitled, 2024, one of the offerings fitting under the floral variety holds pole position upon entering the gallery, in a symphony of pink-to-cadmium asteraceae petals and teal stalks against a washy field of earthy mahogany. On top of which patches of violet and black (Paynes grey?) are laid down via a stylus and palette/putty knife applied daubs. While glints of uninflected white ground peek out as pointed highlights. The viewers gaze pingpong over the entire picture plane guided by the painters strategies. Directly opposite one encounters another Untitled painting that basks in a frequency at the opposite end of the spectrum, rendered in pastel tonalities in which the Rococo is summoned.

Jadé Fadojutimi, The Generosity of Trauma, 2024, acrylic, oil and oil pastel on canvas, 98 12 x 68 7/8 inches (250 x 175 cm)
© Jadé Fadojutimi Photo: Mark Blower Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian
 

The Generosity of Trauma, 2024, centers on encircling parallel mauve strands framing hatch marks and errant rosy flourishes contribute to the resemblance of an horizon leading to an expansive wistful lemon ‘sky’.

Jadé Fadojutimi, Untitled, 2024, acrylic, oil and oil pastel on canvas, 98 12 x 68 7/8 inches (250 x 175 cm)
© Jadé Fadojutimi Photo: Mark Blower Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian

Three Untitled paintings, numbers 4, 5 and 8 by the checklist, hung in close proximity, riff on sub-continent festival vibes, relying on a palette as ethereally resplendent as an Indian festival. Making the full circuit the exhibition concludes with Untitled (checklist number 21) has Fadojutimi exploiting the transparency of glazing by laying down port-cubist facets to carry maximum energy in depiction of what I will refer to as a clearing, dappled sunlight glinting beyond the stretch of a mound that occupies the lower two-thirds of the picture.

Jadé Fadojutimi, DWELVE: A Goosebump in Memory, 2024, installation view
© Jadé Fadojutimi Photo: Owen Conway Courtesy Gagosian
 

A glut of works on paper, executed over the past four years, are hung on the two facing walls of a long corridor situated square in the center of the gallery. Whether it was the confinement of this gauntlet arrangement, or the overwhelming quanity, my own inadequacy prevented me from digesting and engaging the swell other than respect for the staggering display and the range of the works. A separate isolating and reflective gallery for this vast catalogue may have been a better option? An exhibition of solely works on paper would be worth beholding as well.

Jadé Fadojutimi has planted a stake and a strong position in the cosmology of contemporary painting. WM