Tolu Akintola

ARTIST STATEMENT

In my body of work, I use paint to evoke the stained-glass effect on plastic, a medium that highlights both fragility and resilience. Just as stained glass undergoes a transformation when illuminated, these pieces too suggest how a woman’s life gains radiance and depth through experience. 

The painted surface carries imperfections that mirror the lived realities of womanhood, which remain unfinished, adaptive, and always in motion, underscoring moments of struggle, joy, and growth.

A consistency of fractured black lines reinforces the pressures and constraints women encounter, while the vibrant colours within them speak to endurance and identity. Each piece moves through stages of becoming, renewal, burden, and connection, all intricately woven together.

-Tolulope Akintola 

“For me, art carries a rhythm much like a song sometimes harmonious, other times atonal, but always moving. It is not just a singular story, but many moments interwoven, each note given life by the echoes of experience.”

-Tolulope Akintola