Yinka Ilori

Yinka Ilori is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer whose bold visual language draws on his British-Nigerian heritage to convey new narratives through contemporary design. Drawing on Nigerian parables and verbal traditions, Ilori touches on a multitude of themes that resonate with a global audience.

His work is underpinned by the belief that art and design should be accessible to all. Humorous, provocative, and playful, his projects demonstrate how design can bring together communities and have a positive impact on society, evoking a sense of joy and optimism. Often using the city as his canvas, he reimagines spaces to encourage a sense of community and invites audiences to engage and participate in his work and its surroundings

The studio now consists of a team of color-obsessed architects and designers, with the expertise and capacity to take on large-scale architectural and interior design projects. The studio continues to experiment with the relationship between function and form, with an output that sits between traditional divisions of art and design.

Solo Exhibitions: MCM House Seoul, 2023; Design Museum, London, 2022; Cristea Roberts Gallery, 2023; MiAdidas x We Transfer, March 2018; Unilever, Red Red, January 2018; Now Gallery, Design Unde!ned, September 2017; Citizen M Hotel, Estate Playground, September 2017; Design Miami, AirBnb, Belong. Here. Now, December 2015; British Library, West Africa: Word Symbol Song, October 2015;

Group Exhibitions: Filling in the Pieces in Black, Saatchi Gallery & Maruani Mercier, 2023; KNIT!, Kvadrat, September 2020; Why Craft Matters, Harewood House, March 2019; Flow of Forms / Forms of Flow, Museum of Ethnology Hamburg, August 2018; Making Africa, Vitra Design Museum, Basel, March 2015; Making Africa, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Autumn 2015; Making Africa, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, October 2016; Making Africa, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, October 2017; Making Africa, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 2018, Making Africa, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas, October 2018; Creative Britain feature stand, British European Design Group, International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), New York, May 2012.

Awards: MBE (2021) London Design Medal Winner, Emerging Design Medal (2020) Elle Decoration New Designer (2019)

Courtesy of the artist