London art fair 2021, edit: folk art

20 - 30 January 2021, curated by Candida Stevens, presented by Ed Cross Fine Art

To write about self-proclaimed folk artist Abe Odedina in the context of folk art is a strange task — implicitly and explicitly, Odedina’s practice roundly dismisses the validity of 'folk art' as a discrete category. 

On the contrary, his tableaus provocatively and consciously straddle its boundaries; here, their recognisably ‘folk art’ form dares you to label them thus. Certainly, in contemporary art discourse, 'folk art' retains troubling connotations of the colonial gaze, relegating traditional items to sociological curios. As Western cultures strive to readjust that dismissive lens, Odedina’s work offers objects which embrace their objecthood: a gesture both radical and very simple indeed. What is folk art but art which serves a function — practical or cultural, as the case may be?

Find out more here.