SLAWN: The Opening Night at Saatchi Yates.

On a crisp Thursday evening in Mayfair, Saatchi Yates held the opening of British-Nigerian artist Olaolu Akeredolu-Ale, aka Slawn’s, first major solo exhibition. A rebellious artist capturing the attention of youth culture in London in a manner arguably not seen since the emergence of Banksy in Bristol, the art world has been presented with a new subversive star. An artist disrupting the art market with not only his unmistakable style, but the persona that accompanies it, Slawn’s innovative mixture of street art and abstract impressionism has clearly captivated popular culture. Saatchi Yates presented an exhibition of Slawn’s new works alongside a wall of 1000 A4 canvases, all individually painted with expressive faces in the artist’s signature style.

Satirical of capitalist and consumer culture, drawing from his Yoruba heritage and contemporary youth culture in London, Slawn has unconventionally forged his own pathway into Mayfair’s art market. Surrounded by some of the most significant art galleries and auction houses in the world, Slawn displayed works that were both a continuation and development of the visual language he has established over the past four years. Unframed, vividly coloured canvases were hung on white gallery walls. The works had a rawness to them, with white canvas peeking through at the edges. Dry brushstrokes and visible mark making create captivating texture that contrasts flat, glossy planes of colour. Caricature style faces that have come to mark each Slawn work peered over the crowd; one in particular painted a group of three corporate men as if they were bald babies with large eyes, gazing up through long eyelashes. Slawn commented, “I just want my work to be undeniable”. It certainly is within popular youth culture, and it seems that this exhibition was the first step towards an “undeniable” presence within the traditional art market as well.

The post-covid zeitgeist in the London art world seems to be transitioning into an era of avidly supporting emerging artists. The couple behind Saatchi Yates, Phoebe Saatchi Yates and Arthur Yates, have designed the St James gallery space to be shared by both emerging and blue-chip artists. Slawn exhibited on the ground floor, designated to showcase artists first major exhibitions, while the lower floor contains blue-chip art from some of the world’s leading private collections. It seems that this was still too traditional for Slawn as he combined the exhibition with a hype-building sale model of ‘drops’. The 1000 A4 canvases were released on a suspenseful first come, first serve basis. Everyone was talking about the singular panel painted with black paint as opposed to the 999 white paintings, perhaps an interesting comment on exclusivity and rarity.

Thursday evening demonstrated that Slawn is one of the unpredictable personalities leading a widespread youthful movement against exclusivity. Preceding the ‘private view’, Slawn posted numerous Instagram stories challenging the traditional guest-list only evening. The artist wrote ‘everyone is welcome, this is your invite’. While our inner art historian read the post as a powerful statement challenging the conventional etiquette of major gallery openings, you might imagine Slawn views it as what he stated was the most fulfilling part of being an artist, “pissing people off”.  In casual conversation throughout the evening, the reply to, ‘how are you finding the exhibition?’ was always, ‘refreshing’. The buzzing atmosphere, laughter and beautifully curated outfits seemed to convey the uplifting image of London’s contemporary creative scene that Slawn and his work attract. Usually seen painted on vehicles in the busy streets of London, in images of the artist’s studio, decorating homes or as Brit awards, the agency of the artworks at Saatchi Yates extended beyond the clean white walls, into the audience that they attracted.