QUAD is delighted that the artist Maryam Ojikutu will be undertaking a residency with us from 16 –29 October 2023. We are pleased to announce that the artist was awarded QUAD/Format Festival prize at NAE Open 2023. Maryam’s Instagram takeover will be between 16–20 October 2023.  

QUAD is excited to work with her on two-weeks residency where Maryam Ojikutu is very much present through one-to-one interactions with the QUAD team, taking over and utilising Quad_gallery Instagram page as a virtual exhibition space. 

Artist biography:  

Maryam Ojikutu (b. London) is a conceptual artist living and working in London. They are concerned with both deconstructing and interrogating notions of gender, blackness, sexuality and general humanity through their work. Maryam’s photography series ‘boy’ was recently selected for the “NAE Open 2023” at the New Art Exchange in Nottingham. As well as this they recently became a recipient of the UK wide digital billboard residency and bursary “Art Fund” by POCC.  

Maryam is also founder and facilitator of “blk-anti-crit”. An experimental crit space (supported by the South London Gallery), concerned with reimagining the critique through a mode of care and consent. It has a focus on supporting black, working class artists who are without access to a formal art education.  

 Artist statement:  

Ultimately my aim is to interrogate facets of my identity in order to better understand myself and the world at large through my process of art making. Due to this, my work is concept heavy – usually centering questions that I have in relation to my own blackness, gender and sexuality. For example: “How stretchy is masculinity?” “What does it mean to be gender nonconforming?” “What are the limits of blackness and can it be taken away from an individual?”. At the moment I find myself exploring these themes through photography, video, writing and conversation, but I am not married to a sole medium as the physicality of my work changes depending on the best way to materialise or convey an idea.