A t the age of 28, London-born painter Jadé Fadojutimi is one of the most exciting emerging artists working today, celebrated by critics and collectors alike for her dazzling oeuvre of emotive, expressive canvases. Using layers of rhythmically applied paint in her exploration of identity and memory, Fadojutimi creates complex, immersive landscapes of brushstrokes, as epitomised by the present work, Under the Weather (2017). The youngest artist in the collection of the Tate museum in London, which features her explosive painting, I Present Your Royal Highness (2018), Fadojutimi has already been honoured with multiple institutional and gallery exhibitions, including at the Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London; Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo; and Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Miami. Invited to exhibit at this year’s Liverpool Biennial, Fadojutimi has proven herself an indomitable force to be reckoned with, and her flourishing career shows no signs of slowing.

Fadojutimi is exceptional in her handling and manipulation of colour. In an interview with art critic David Trigg for Studio International, Fadojutimi muses: “I’ve always loved colour. Painting mentions a whole ocean of colour and I was so ready to dive in” (the artist cited in David Trigg, “Jadé Fadojutimi - interview: ‘I bathe in the conversations between colour, texture, line, form, composition, rhythm, marks and disturbances’”, studio international, 26 April 2021, online). Often working late into the night, the artist beautifully builds up thin layers of pigment with rhythmic caresses, before intuitively scraping and scratching the painting’s luminous surface to leave a myriad of dancing grooves and sweeping strokes in her wake. Through colour and form alone, Fadojutimi is able to evoke compelling, complex feelings and emotions in the viewer, reflective of her own emotions at the time of working. Here, the array of cobalt and azure hues intermingle with a deep shade of indigo to arouse feelings of melancholy and lethargy, echoed by the title, “Under the Weather”. Nevertheless, saturated strokes of brash gold startle the viewer from their reverie, and warm patches of lighter cream infuse the work with a sense of comfort, reminiscent of sitting warmly inside when it’s raining outdoors.

In Under the Weather, Fadojutimi’s brushwork is purposeful and clear, teasing at both abstraction and figuration in the creation of a mesmerising sensory experience. Almost Condo-esque in the curvature of her tenacious scalloped blue and mustard lines, this work stands out amongst her oeuvre in its more defined allusion to the figurative. Indeed, the artist states: “I see abstraction and figuration as opposite ends of the same spectrum and each work has its own place on that spectrum” (the artist cited in David Trigg, Ibid.). With her bold paintings, Fadojutimi creates a view to another world that is both disparate and analogous to ours, communicating truth and emotion through her impulsive aesthetic.

Each of Fadojutimi’s glittering, rhythmic canvases are unique, with the artist eschewing any one rigid, systematic way of working. Her canvas works such as Under the Weather take the viewer on a voyage of the imagination, determined by the context of their creation and the particular visual information that she gleans from her environment at the time of her work’s formation. The artist describes: “I spoil myself with visual information and take from my surroundings like they’re a dictionary, a thesaurus, an atlas and an encyclopedia. A wonderful byproduct is that the paintings and space flow in and out of each other, becoming one” (the artist cited in David Trigg, Ibid.). Her rich source material includes the shapes, colours and patterns of her surroundings, as well as music, anime, video games, drawings and memories. Overall, her work is inspired by the beauty and texture of the everyday, a veritable celebration of life.

畫 家賈黛・法多朱蒂米生於倫敦，現年28嵗，是當今最引人期盼的新晉藝術家之一，其驚艷、善感而富有表現力的畫面受到藝評人與收藏家一致認可。法多朱蒂米帶著韵律感來塗抹和叠加油彩顔料，探索身份與記憶議題，創造了讓人身臨其境的複雜景致，濃縮呈現在此作《不適》（2017）。倫敦泰特美術館收藏了法多朱蒂米情感強烈之作《殿下我向您呈上》（2018），使她成爲館藏最年輕的藝術家。此前，她在多個機構與畫廊展覽中備受贊譽，當中包括倫敦Pippy Houldsworth畫廊、東京Taka Ishii畫廊以及邁阿密當代藝術中心。今年，法多朱蒂米更獲利物浦雙年展邀請展出，證明她在藝壇中勢不可擋、事業方興。

法多朱蒂米對色彩的處理與把控非常出色。她在藝評人大衛·特裏格在《國際工作室》(Studio International) 雜誌的訪談中，如此娓娓道來：「我一直都很喜歡色彩。繪畫涉獵色彩的浩瀚海洋，我隨時都準備好潜入」（引自藝術家，大衛·特里格，<賈黛・法多朱蒂米訪談：我沐浴在色彩、肌理、綫條、形式、構圖、節奏、印記與干擾的對話中>，《國際工作室》，2021年4月26日，網上資源）。藝術家經常工作到夜深，她帶著節奏感的摩挲，優美地叠加薄層顔料，最後憑著直覺刮擦畫作光亮的表面，在清醒時留下無數翩翩起舞的刮痕和大刀闊斧的筆觸。僅僅通過顔色和形式，法多朱蒂米就得以引起觀者強烈而複雜的感受與情緒，映照著她創作時自身的感覺。此作中的鈷藍和天青色調與深靛藍色交織在一起，輕輕喚起憂鬱而倦怠的思緒，與作品標題互相呼應。然而，艶麗而醒目的金色筆觸使觀者從遐想中驚醒，和暖的淺奶油色塊爲作品帶來舒緩的感覺，恍若是哪管窗外雨綿綿，安然坐於溫室中。

法多朱蒂米在《不適》的用筆明確而清晰，在締造迷惑的感官經驗中把玩抽象與具象。藍色和深黃色的圓齒狀頑强曲綫營造出如康多作品中的分割空間，藝術家對具象的明確暗示，使得此作在她的作品主體中顯得非常獨特。藝術家表明：「我將抽象和具象看成一個光譜中的兩極，每個作品都有自己在光譜中的相應位置」（引自藝術家，大衛·特里格，同上）。法多朱蒂米通過大膽的畫作創造了一個彼方的景觀，與我們身處的此方迥異又相似，她的美學猶如一股洶湧不息的感性漩渦，傳達出畫者心中的實相和情感。

法多朱蒂米的作品富有韻律，畫面彷如微微發光，每張都是獨一無二的，而這一切皆來自她拒絕古板的工作方式。她的布面作品，一如《不適》，將觀者帶往一個充滿想像的旅程，這往往由她創作時的語境，以及她在創作形成期間從環境中拾取的特定視覺元素所決定。藝術家如此形容到：「我將自己沉浸在視覺信息中，從周圍環境中拾掇靈感，就像查閲字典、辭海、地圖冊與百科全書。因此帶來了美妙的副產品——畫作與空間彼此相互流淌，合二為一」（引自藝術家，大衛·特里格，同上）。她身邊事物的形狀、色彩和紋樣，乃至音樂、動畫、電子游戲、畫稿和記憶，都成爲豐富的原材料。總而言之，她的作品受日常美感和質感所啓發，活脫脫是一場生活的盛宴。