Curatorial Mentorships

British Artist Toyin Olubamiwo × Indonesian Curator Ignatia Nilu

What happened during the collaboration?

Toyin Olubamiwo is an artist from Artbox London studios, who we paired with Indonesian freelance curator Ignatia Nilu. After sharing details about the various curator roles Nilu has held for festivals, galleries, and projects across Indonesia, we heard from Toyin about her interests in superheroes, villains, and cartoons. Toyin set out to find other artists working in similar themes from UK supported studios, and Nilu researched similar artists across Indonesia. As part of this project, Toyin came up with a set of questions that she asked each artist. Firstly out of curiosity, and secondly it helped her to see if others worked in comparable ways to hers and had similar interests. The final presentation Le Visible et l’invisible (The Visible and The Invisible), brought together ten artists from the UK and Indonesia, whose practices feature superheroes and cartoon characters directly or indirectly, as well as showcasing their sketchbook works. The title alludes to the fact that we don’t often get to see the sketchbooks and inner mind workings of artists, so this was a real treat! Nilu also enjoyed seeing the sketchbooks, stating: “Artists often revisit sketchbooks after they have formalised their ideas or concepts. And by revisiting the invisible part of their artistic process, we see the broader scope of the artworks themself.”

Biographies

TOYIN OLUBAMIWO is a prolific artist who has a very colourful, innovative and experimental style, which manifests itself in many detailed drawings and paintings. Her practice is varied, incorporating many different artistic styles to produce books, paintings, drawings, and three-dimensional artworks. Toyin is very passionate about art, and often creates stories with characters, both real and imagined. She has attended Artbox London since 2014.

IGNATIA NILU is a writer, independent curator and cultural producer based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Through her formal studies in political science, she has worked extensively in arts management and curation of visual arts, media arts and sound art in different formats. She has been active as a curator with ARTJOG | International Contemporary Art Festival based in Jogjakarta since 2015 and helped found ART BALI in 2018.

Sketchbook page 2013