Sola Olulode is a British-Nigerian that portrays figurative queer intimate narratives in a bold, illustrative graphic style. She uses a wide range of materials including dye, ink, wax, oil paint, pastel, acrylic, charcoal and batik. 

Heavily inspired by artists from the black arts movement as Claudette Johnson, she has always been interested in the ways artists paint the body and scenes. Olulode researched how Nigerian Artists were using traditional crafts and techniques on contemporary practices to apply them to her work. 

Olulode focuses on the idea of togetherness, softness and the tenderness of love. 

Transcend crude notions of queer sexuality 

She has exhibited works internationally and graced panels across multiple London galleries and art fairs including VO Curations, Carl Freedman Gallery, Christie’s Education and Lisson Gallery.

Ayako Rokkaku (Chiba, Japan) lives and works between Berlin, Porto, and Tokyo. Her artistic process involves an instinctive and performative approach, as she uses her bare hands to apply acrylic paint. Indeed, Rokkaku stages live painting performances in contexts where her work will be exhibited, bringing the dialogue between the audience and artist as close to one another. 

After nearly two decades of immersing her hands in acrylic and oil paint, Rokkaku expanded her artistic boundaries by challenging herself to create sculptures, using ceramics, bronze, and glass. 

Rokkaku’s visual language seamlessly shifts between elusive abstract formations and figurative elements, drawing inspiration from the kawaii (cute) culture and capturing the boundless imagination of a child. Rokkaku is known for her colourful canvases populated by imaginary landscapes and fantastical characters. 

Rokkaku has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at The Long Museum, China (2023); the Chiba Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan (2020); Museum Jan van der Togt, Netherlands (2019); Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Slovakia (2012); and Kunsthal, Netherlands (2011). In 2015, she exhibited at the Swatch Art Pavilion during the 56th Venice Biennale.

Anna Ortiz is a Mexican-American painter living in Brooklyn. Growing up in Worcester Massachusetts, Ortiz spent much of her childhood visiting her family in Guadalajara Mexico. There she studied art with her grandfather Alfonso who was a professional portrait painter as well as with her aunt Lolita, a professional sculptor. 

Ortiz’s surrealist landscapes reference the cultural divide she and so many second generation Americans feel. Their narrative nature references ancient Aztec and Mayan mythology while reflecting back on current and personal events. Out of the ruins of their previous existence, these new creatures inhabit a borderland between memory and imagination. Dualities define them; they give them shape. Weaving together invented spaces with references to actual places, the paintings take both a familiar tone and a sense of the uncanny. 

Ortiz has had solo exhibitions at Deanna Evans Projects and Dinner Gallery in New York. She has shown with Johansson Projects, Monya Rowe and 1969 Gallery. Her work has been featured in Art Forum, Maake Magazine, Art Maze. She has also been interviewed on the Sound and Vision Podcast.