AGE: 33
BASED IN: New York
Tunji Adeniyi-Jones’s contribution to the Nigerian Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale was an exercise in the perspective shift: The London-born, Brooklyn-based artist installed a luminous orange and yellow painting of swirling abstract and figurative forms on the palazzo’s ceiling. It embodied Adeniyi-Jones’s talent for infusing the history of West Africa and the mythology of his Yoruba heritage into paintings that feel distinctly contemporary. White Cube began representing him in 2021, and his work is in the collections of the Dallas Museum of Art and Pérez Art Museum Miami.
Describe one work you’ve made that captures who you are as an artist.
A painting called Dance in Heat, which is in the collection of the Pérez Art Museum Miami. It’s a bright red and orange painting depicting three figures in motion. The museum had it on display for a long time, and I was told that the audience really loved it. It encapsulates everything that I’ve become as a painter. I’m interested in figuration. I’m interested in abstraction. I’m interested in color, shape, line, and form. All that is present and on display in this piece.
Describe your work in three words.
Bright, bold, and resonant.
Imagine someone gives you $150,000 to make anything you want—no strings. What are you making?
I would probably use it to start a line of clothing—nothing too crazy, just pants, jackets, and tops. The artist Sterling Ruby has a line of clothing that coincides with his studio practice quite nicely. I’ve quietly always liked that idea.
Tell us about a teacher who changed the way you think about art.
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye encouraged me to move to the U.S. to pursue an MFA 11 years ago. After making this move, one of my MFA professors, Sam Messer, gave me a book about the artist Bob Thompson, whom I’d never heard of or seen before. Both gestures are pretty ordinary, but they totally altered the course of my life.
What’s an underrated studio tool you can’t live without?
Wet wipes are crucial, especially if you work with oil paint.
What art-world trend would you like to see die out?
Needing to add music on your Instagram post to reach a wider audience. I guess that’s more of a social media gripe than anything else.
Is there a studio rule you live by?
This is aspirational, but I need to leave either my phone or my laptop at home, as a rule. I get infinitely more work done without them.
Who are the three people, alive or dead, invited to your dream art-world dinner party?
Definitely Ernie Barnes and Michael Bennett, two NFL athletes who turned to the arts. There are many discussions to be had about the intersection between these disciplines. The third guest would be Grace Wales Bonner.
See CULTURED’s full 2025 Young Artists list and access other individual artist profiles here.
in your life?
