“It is natural that he who feeds you also imposes his will … He who does not feed you can demand nothing of you. Here, however, we are being fed every day, every year, and we say, “Down with imperialism!” Well, your stomach knows what’s what.’
– Thomas Sankara
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My work is Black, figurative, and very grounded in narrative based storytelling.I’m interested in foraging history as a way of learning and adapting liberatory visions. Historical revolutionary movements, structures, and ideas – specifically regarding agrarian movements – are a really important part of how I imagine the scenes in my work. Being informed by history allows me to better envision the “fictional” aspects of my work. Although I think “fiction” is a tricky word because it implies something completely untrue. I believe in the power of mobilization, and liberation struggle, so i don't consider my work to be inherently fictional. Rather, I see my work as historically informed manifestations of something that is within reach; a means of envisioning a resistance-based approach to decolonized food systems, land relationships, and labor practices. I consider my work to be an exercise in Black fugitivity and resistance, as well as tenderness and collectivity.
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Sophia-Yemisi Adeyemo was an Artist-in-Residence at BRIC Arts Media in Brooklyn, NY. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at Lazuli Residency in Corinth, Vermont and the New York Academy of Art. Her work has been exhibited at BRIC Arts Media in Brooklyn, NY, Marianne Boesky gallery in New York, NY, The Manetti Shrem Museum of Art in Davis, California and featured in The Second Head at Office and Gallery in Los Angeles, California. She was finalist for the second round of The Bennett Prize, the largest painting prize ever awarded solely to women painters. She received her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and is currently an MFA candidate at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.
