Olalolu Slawn 'Hot Air Balloon' Print Available
Artist: Olalolu Slawn
Title: Hot Air Balloon
Medium: Giclee Print
Size: 70 x 100 cm
Edition: 100
Price: $1,000
Olaolu Akeredolu-Ale, known worldwide as Slawn, is a twenty first century cultural phenomenon who fuses Nigerian energy with London street attitude. Born in Lagos in 2000, he grew up drawing clowns and cartoon faces, a visual vocabulary that still powers his work. After moving to the United Kingdom he studied at the University of Northampton, where boredom during lockdown pushed him from paper scraps to large canvases and walls. His style is immediate and raw: bold black outlines, candy colours and googly eyes collide in compositions that feel like notebook doodles scaled to epic size. Using spray paint, markers and household emulsion, he attacks blank space with cheerful aggression, creating pop infused tableaux that nod to Yoruba pattern and hip hop album art in one breath.
Slawn courts controversy as easily as he courts collectors. His caricature figures, once dismissed by a teacher as shoddy, have become signature motifs that some viewers read as social critique while others see pure mischief. Works such as Three Arthurs and Alara, Ajero and Orangun spark heated debate, yet the artist insists he is simply drawing what he knows, inviting audiences to question their own assumptions about race, taste and intent. This fearless stance has earned him high profile patrons: Skepta curated his auction debut at Sothebys, Virgil Abloh championed his streetwear label Motherlan, and Louis Vuitton tapped him for a capsule collection.
In 2023 he became the youngest and first Nigerian born artist to design the BRIT Awards trophy, a bronze trio of helmeted figures that salute British music and his own skate crew roots. He followed that by redesigning the FA Cup in 2024 and painting a Formula One race car in 2025, proving his vision can travel at two hundred miles per hour and still feel like a back alley tag. Whether exhibiting at the Truman Brewery, launching a coffee shop named after his son Beau, or handing out free canvases at parties, Slawn operates on the principle that art should be fun, fearless and a little bit chaotic. Through every spray can burst he offers a simple message: stay playful, stay rebellious and never let a blank wall go to waste.
