Bunmi Agusto holds a paracosm in her mind that she has named ‘Within’. This world exists as a macro-reflection of her own interiority and is subsequently a site for her explorations of psychology, cultural theory and the evolution of selfhood through the lens of fantasy. As featured in her paintings, the indigenous inhabitants of this world are eight hybrids born in the image of the artist with mutations based on formative emblems of her childhood and cultural development. Non-Hybrid humans are present in Within through family members, friends and passersby in the artist’s waking life who have been subsumed into the world through encounters and begin to occupy the role of cross-reality migrants in her mind. As a result, Within functions as a repository for all people, objects and theories the artist encounters in her waking life as she creates fantastical retellings of her lived experiences as well as the unseen mechanics of the metaphysical forces around us. Her works on paper depict fantastic, allegorical life on the sentient, braided landscape of Within. She combines drawing, painting and printmaking to create bold, intricate images with underlying geometric compositions that draw from West African aesthetic histories embedded in her cultural consciousness.
She earned her BA in Fine Art in 2020 from Central Saint Martins where she graduated with first class honours and was awarded the Cass Art Prize twice. She earned her MA in History of Art and Archaeology from SOAS University in 2022 and her MFA from the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford in 2023, both with Distinction. At Oxford, she was awarded the Clarendon Scholarship for outstanding academic merit and was selected for the Mansfield-Ruddock prize at her Degree Show. She was also selected for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2023.
She has been the subject of several solo and group exhibitions including: Free The Wind, The Spirit and The Sun, Stephen Friedman Gallery (2023); Outside, kó artspace, Lagos (2022); Redefining the Trend - Histories in the Making, Christie’s, London (2022); 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, DADA Gallery, London (2022); Psychoscape, TAFETA, London (2022); Escape To Within, DADA Gallery, London (2021); London Grads Now, Saatchi Gallery, London (2021); Wheels To Water, Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London (2020). She also notably exhibited her work alongside the presentation of Kenneth Ize’s Spring/Summer 2022 collection at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Her work has been featured in print in DADA Magazine (Issue No.1), Boy.Brother.Friend (Issue No.3) and Town & Countryhouse (Mar/Apr 2023). Her work has also been featured digitally on The Financial Times, Women’s Wear Daily and Another Magazine Online.