Toyin Ojih Odutola

Known for: densely layered charcoal portraits; To Wander Determined (2017)

Toyin Ojih Odutola works in pen, pencil, and charcoal to build densely layered portraits in which the skin's surface is rendered in intricate texture that simultaneously suggests topography and light. Her fictional narratives — the To Wander Determined series depicting a fictional Nigerian aristocracy — construct alternative histories that use portraiture as speculative fiction. She has described her practice as one of world-building as much as image-making.