Slawn 'Mike Tyson' Print Available

Artist: Slawn
Title: Mike Tyson
Medium: Giclee Print
Size: 70 x 100 cm
Edition: UNSURE
Price: $950

Born in Nigeria as Olaolu Slawn, the London-based artist has rapidly emerged as a formidable presence in the contemporary art world, captivating audiences with his distinctive, unapologetically bold aesthetic that merges pop culture references with sociopolitical commentary. Slawn's artistic journey began in Lagos before he relocated to London for university, where his creative aspirations truly took hold. He quickly established a signature style characterized by vibrant colors, graphic lines, and often provocative imagery that challenges conventional art boundaries.

Slawn's work frequently draws parallels to the iconic street art and pop art movements, though it retains a unique voice that is deeply personal and reflective of his dual cultural identity. His pieces, which span various mediums including painting, sculpture, and design, often feature recurring motifs and a playful subversion of high-fashion and commercial logos, transforming familiar symbols into statements on consumerism, power, and representation.

Beyond the canvas, Slawn has cultivated a powerful brand and influence that extends into the fashion, music, and skateboarding communities. He is a co-founder of the Lagos-based skateboard company Motherlan, an initiative that has helped foster a burgeoning skate culture in Nigeria and provided a platform for local youth. His reach in the global scene is undeniable, with his work being exhibited in galleries worldwide and his collaborations sought after by major brands and high-profile figures.

Despite his rising star power and association with celebrities, Slawn maintains a commitment to authenticity and raw expression. He operates with an entrepreneurial spirit that defies traditional art world structures, proving that an artist can build an empire on their own terms. His impact is not merely aesthetic; it is cultural, providing a fresh and vital perspective that resonates with a global, connected generation seeking art that is both visually engaging and intellectually stimulating. Slawn remains a compelling figure, continuously pushing the envelope and redefining what it means to be a contemporary artist in the 21st century.

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.

Olaolu Slawn 'Running Lies' Print Available

Artist: Olaolu Slawn
Title: Running Lies
Medium: Giclee Print
Size: 70 x 70 cm
Edition: UNSURE
Prices: $550

 

Olaolu Slawn born Olaolu Akeredolu-Ale in Lagos, October 24th, 2000 is a British-Nigerian painter, designer and self-branded “scam-artist” who has sprinted from Nigeria’s fledgling skate scene to the front pages of Sotheby’s and Silverstone in under five years. He learnt visual mischief stacking shelves and shaping boards at Wafflesncream, Lagos’ first skate shop, then co-founded street collective Motherlan, earning an early cosign from Virgil Abloh. A 2018 move to London (and lockdown boredom) pushed him from graphic-design classes at Middlesex University to slapping bright, grotesque caricatures on any surface that couldn’t run away canvases, club walls, even fried bread at after-parties.

Working in furious, lo-fi layers of spray paint, household emulsion and oil stick, Slawn fuses Yoruba pattern logic with 90s cartoon violence, re-appropriating golliwog-era stereotypes into bug-eyed, balloon-lipped grotesques that bait debates on race, identity and bad taste. The punchy immediacy of the imagery plus stunts like “fight-club” exhibitions where punters brawled for paintings quickly drew fans from Skepta to A$AP Rocky.

Major institutions followed: in 2023 he became the youngest artist ever to redesign the BRIT Award statuette, then repeated the trick for the 2024 FA Cup trophy. Auction records escalated when Three Yoruba Brothers sold at Sotheby’s and history was made again in July 2025 when his graffiti wrap on Racing Bulls’ Formula 1 VCARB 02 became the first artwork to race at the British Grand Prix. Whether you call it neo-expressionism or trolling at scale, Slawn’s work insists art can be loud, profane and still painfully honest about the pigment of prejudice.