“My Existence Is Inherently Political”: Inside Okiki Akinfe’s World

Okiki Akinfe paints from the in-between: the layered, often contradictory spaces where Britishness and Nigerian identity rub up against one another. Based in London, Akinfe’s work draws on personal memory, pop culture and academic research to question what it means to belong – and what it means to be seen. After studying painting at the Slade and the Royal College of Art, her practice has developed into a kind of counter-archive – one that repositions the gaze, centres Black experience, and reclaims softness and humour as radical tools.

In conversation with Something Curated’s Keshav Anand, Akinfe speaks candidly about making her first solo show Where the Wild Things Are at Ginny on Frederick, the childhood game of “Scramble,” and how books, music, and rest have shaped her visual language. Thoughtful, funny and deeply attuned to the politics of everyday life, Akinfe invites us into a world where Tina Campt, ghosts, and chicken shops coexist – and where painting becomes both portal and provocation.

Keshav Anand: Your new works reflect on the tensions and connections between Britishness and Nigerian culture. Could you share a bit about your background and what first drew you to painting as a way to broach these ideas?

Okiki Akinfe: I grew up as a first-generation British-Nigerian, a unique experience in itself. It feels like trying to make extra effort to exist in one culture or the other. At home or with family or church, it felt like we were Nigerian-British, existing in a wider diaspora of Blackness, as if we were on our own island where Britishness would make guest appearances. At other times I was pretending to know and like The Beatles at primary school or was explaining my central London accent at secondary school in Essex.

I believe creativity and Nigerianness go hand in hand. I think I used it as a way to self-reflect, and as a form of therapy – as a way to actively archive my experiences and what I had learnt. I found growing up many people were ill-informed to say the least about my background or just how to understand me. I found I did not know much myself, but there was an intrinsic knowledge I knew. I started researching early on traditional painting methods, the Spanish Moors, the Silk Road, the history of my mother’s village, the historic use of racism and classism as a means of oppression, in-between watching cartoons and after-school clubs.

KA: After graduation, you participated in Yinka Shonibare’s G.A.S. Foundation residency in Lagos. I had spoken with Shonibare about the initiative ahead of its launch for a story back in 2022 and am very curious about how your experience was there.

OK: The residency was amazing! It was my first time exploring Nigeria as an adult and not staying with family. I went during the summer after I graduated from RCA, completed two residencies back-to-back (the other at Porthmeor Studios). I was mainly working on the lexicon of what I believe would be to build a new body of work. I did not want to go straight into making right away. I wanted to have time to process my art education. The G.A.S. Foundation residency came at the right time.

I was staying in Lekki but travelled to different parts of Nigeria and got to the mainland several times to visit my family. I was able to use the extensive library at the foundation, something I was very keen to have as a study tool. I definitely believe it was such a helpful environment to nurture what felt like a very precious slow-moving explorative period of work. Additionally, being able to lead young artists’ crits, it was such a great experience. Interestingly enough, it was the first time I felt a great combination of existing as British and Nigerian. I hope to go again!

KA: The new exhibition at Ginny on Frederick borrows its title from the children’s book Where the Wild Things Are. Was Where the Wild Things Are an important part of your childhood?

OK: Where the Wild Things Are is such a big part of my childhood, being one of those books that I think communicates my inner visual world. Existing as a metaphor for my works, surreal landscapes that are very real depictions of diaspora living, satire and self-commentary.

KA: Can you talk more about the literary references that have helped shape this new body of work – from the writings of Kevin Quashie and Tina Campt to Avery Gordon?

OK: Of course. I find it interesting sometimes when people are not aware of my literary references. Yes, the works do exist on a cheeky Essex-girl level but there is a big effort to make sure I am well informed to present my work to others. I think it is very easy to call art ‘world-building’, but for me this includes a lot of investing into what topics I am drawn to. I was looking for something that I did not know that I needed – quiet. And how do I express that? I remember having these Zoom book club meetings with fellow Slade students Moza Almazrouei, Bishwadhan Rai and Fiza Ghauri. I believe we were all looking for a place of quietness in the mess that seems to be happening in the world. I was finding it hard to produce work while having my presence as a Black woman within the art space.

I remember once Moza, who knew I was dealing with these issues, sent me an Instagram post about the idea of rest as a form of activism for Black women. From there I believe everything slowly shifted into place. Suddenly I had these literary references that were helping me to put words to what I was feeling. It is good for any artist to have moments to slow down and question what it is that they are trying to say. What is fuelling their practice? I believe it is important to find friends who actively encourage your restraint in making to preserve your literal sanity.

KA: This is your first solo exhibition – how has that allowed you to push your practice further, or differently?

OK: I have never done a large full body of work before, although I am normally working on lots of things at once. It is still a smaller amount of works that have been pre-planned, sat with. I then decide to show when the right time comes. And to ensure full satisfaction with the works there is a conscious effort to limit how much I make and show. I love the Ginny space, it really forces you to decide what is most important to convey what you are trying to say with your work – a conversation that came up while putting the show together between Freddie and I. I believe I approached it a bit differently than I had expected, being strict with the amount of time I spent in a studio and trying to make sure that I spent more time outside the studio and with friends and family. I want to try my best to acknowledge my need for balance between making and life outside of it. I thought more about having smaller works because of the space, but also trying to push myself not just to make larger pieces, angling for more assertive moments within the show, knowing I wanted to have a bold moment (the curve painting) within the show. The sizing and layout of the show was inspired by the book.

KA: What exactly does a game of “Scramble” involve? And could you expand on how you have utilised it as a lens through which to view the socio-political context of state schools in Essex?

OK: Scramble! is the largest painting in the show. A curved piece with an accompanying text: Scramble: a British school history. The game was this crazy experience that happened at school. I had the concept for the painting and it aligned very much with this game. I am very interested in cause and effect – why people do things. I would like to think part of my practice has this way of using the absurd to address nonsensical beliefs. It is interesting that sometimes people are more willing to question their beliefs or understandings of a topic if the conversation is approached in an unexpected manner to what they would assume – perhaps via satire. I would encourage people to pick up the text when they visit the show because it explains it way better.

But essentially, it is a game where money is thrown in the air and someone shouts “Scramble!”, a sort of cartoon dust cloud ensues until someone finds a coin. But I would say the larger part of the conversation is more about addressing the issues of how the accessibility to free school dinners can affect the behaviour of pupils in British schools. It’s a game that sometimes comes across as wild behaviour amongst kids, but as I get older I am seeing it might be the symptoms of something bigger. However, there still is a comical part that comes with that story. I would not always describe myself as political but as someone whose existence is inherently political. There are conversations I address through work as I feel like existing in an art space is so different to how I grew up, and my experiences are worth exploring.

KA: Having seen some of your older works in progress when visiting The Bomb Factory last year, I thought the way you structure your paintings almost felt like creating a layered stage or set. Is performance something you think about when making your work?

OK: Absolutely, I do believe I am feeding into the grandeur of painting itself when I make work. I am obsessed with process, blueprints and underpainting. I believe I am making paintings that are guides on how to make paintings – hopefully painter’s paintings. But it is not lost on me the way audiences can get trapped in the spectacle of painting, oblivious to what is actually in the painting and what is lurking around the corner. I think it is also very easy to get caught in the performance of the studio, not actively creating or experimenting or exploring but stuck in the process of seeing, not looking and observing, constantly producing but not sitting still. I do aim to make work that will catch people out. In conversation I can tell if you really spent time with the text I have written or the paintings. There is so much hidden work.

KA: Changing pace for a moment, aside from home, where are your favourite places to eat in London?

OK: [Laughs] I am gatekeeping them I think now. If you know me, you will know the answer, but I will recommend Enish, 805 and The Stork – everyone should try Nigerian food.

KA: And what are you listening to in the studio these days?

OK: Well, I have to listen to music via albums, so I feel like I cycle through music very slowly. If you recommend a song I will try to listen to the album it came from, and if I do not like the album it is going back on the shelf for a while. So it makes me really stubborn about music suggestions. That being said, for this body of work I would say:

GNX and To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar, Chromakopia and Call Me If You Get Lost by Tyler, the Creator, My 21st Century Symphony (Live at the Royal Albert) by Raye, Born in the Wild by Tems, Channel Orange by Frank Ocean, Heis by Rema, Brat by Charli XCX, What’s Wrong with New York by The Dare, and Glorious by GloRilla.

After that it is just Bad Bunny, Wet Leg, Kali Uchis, Fuji music, Yoruba worship, Slick Rick, MF Doom, The Cramps and two amazing artists I know from the London scene – Cap1talA and Divine Earth. And of course, podcasts appear on my Spotify.



Okiki Akinfe’s Where the Wild Things Are is on view at Ginny on Frederick, London until 12 July 2025.