Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju
b. October 13 1996, on a Sunday
monilola13@gmail.com
@monilola
Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju is a Nigerian-American artist and writer based in Berlin. Working across painting, writing, performance and installation, she balances intimate experiences of connection, violence, and healing against broader considerations of cultural distortion and identity. She graduated with distinction from New York University, where she studied studio art and social and cultural analysis. She is also an alumna of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She has contributed to curatorial and editorial projects of SAVVY Contemporary and Archive Books, among others. Earnestly (2022, Archive Books) is her debut collection of writing. She is currently a participant in the BPA// Berlin program for artists.
Recent solo exhibitions include Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju: BloodLetter, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, Germany (2024), BloodLetter, PSM, Berlin (2024), Saint V., Tarte Vienna, Vienna (2023), Gymnasia, A plus A Gallery, Venice, (2023), Hands Full of Air, Galerie im Turm, Berlin (2020); and Eve of Intuition, The Institute for Endotic Research (TIER), Berlin (2020). Ilupeju has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Musafiri: Travellers and Guests, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2025), Twilight is a Place of Promise, Esther Schipper, Berlin (2024), Politics of Love, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Hamburg (2024), non playable character, School for Curatorial Studies Venice & The Fairest, Venice (2022), my whole body changed into something else, Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg (2021), where will i be buried, Flux Factory, New York (2020), and Queer Intimacy and States of Emotions, Human Resources, Los Angeles (2019).