Born in Nigeria in 1985, Odutola is a contemporary artist living and working in New York. She focuses on identity and the sociopolitical concept of skin color through her pen and ink drawings.

Her work explores her personal journey of having been born in Nigeria then moving and assimilating into American culture in conservative Alabama. “I’m doing black on black on black, trying to make it as layered as possible in the deepness of the blackness to bring it out.” Odutola said in an August 2013 interview in the International Review of African American Art.

When asked why the majority of her figures are black in a recent interview with the Village Voice, Ojih Odutola responded, “Of course they’re black figures because they’re drawn in black pen, but not all of the figures are of African American descent, or at least the reference isn’t. One of the things I like to play with is, “What is black?” Is it because I drew it? Is it because it looks black? Is it because you think the figure is black? Because a lot of it is just a filter, and the filters get more and more obstructed by whatever people think the image is about and not really what it is.”

Toyin Ojih Odutola, Lida A. Orzeck '68 Distinguished Artist-In-Residence at Barnard College, shares insights and information on her Whitney show, her work and her collaboration with Barnard. She considers the roots that inform her art, her unique portraitures and what she expects to teach and learn at Barnard College.

Exhibitions include

Brooklyn Museum, New York
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
Studio Museum Harlem, New York
Seattle Museum of Art
Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art
National Academy Museum of Art in New York

Works appear in

Museum of Modern Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
Princeton University Art Museum
Baltimore Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
National Museum of African Art (Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.)

“The Kiss” was included in Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, at the Brooklyn Museum, in 2016.