Abe Odedina (born 1960, Ibadan, Nigeria, lives in London and Salvador Bahia) had a successful architecture career before starting to paint on a trip to Brazil in 2007.
Odedina, together with The Underground Museum, Los Angeles was awarded the 2017 Ellsworth Kelly Award from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts, New York.
Solo exhibitions: For crying out loud, Ed Cross at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London, (2024); Son of the Soil, British Art Fair, London, (2024); I’m a Believer, Ed Cross, London, (2023); Independent Art Fair, New York, (2023); You Give Me Fever, Diane Rosenstein, Los Angeles, (2022); Cutting Edge, Ed Cross at Clerkenwell Gallery, London (2021); Just Looking, Ed Cross at ArtX, Lagos, (2020); Birds of Paradise, Ed Cross at Copeland Gallery, London (2019); True Love, Ed Cross at The Department Store, London (2018); Say it Loud, Ed Cross at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Somerset House, London, (2017); Eye to Eye, Ed Cross at Copeland Gallery, London (2016); Hi-Life, Brixton East (2014); Under the Influence, The Lookout, Aldeburgh (2013).
Group exhibitions: When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town (2022); In the Beginning, Ed Cross Fine Art, Online (2021); Stop, Listen! CFHILL, Online (2021); Folk Art, London Art Fair, Online (2021); Art X Lagos, Online (2020); Diaspora, New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham (2019); Get Up, Stand Up Now, Somerset House, London (2019); Talisman in the Age of Difference, Stephen Friedman Gallery (June 2018), Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy (2017), Brixton Design Trail, Street Gallery (2015); Global Artists Consortium, Knight Webb Gallery (2013); and BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London (2013).
Odedina was commissioned by director Danny Boyle and the South African charity Dramatic Need to create a new body of work for the digital set of The Children’s Monologues, at Carnegie in New York City, November 2017.
Odedina’s work is in a number of major international collections including The British Government Art Collection, the Serge Tiroche Collection and the collection of Jorge Pérez.