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Fiyin Oluokun is an emerging mixed-media artist, whose work reflects on the lives of the Nigerian diaspora living in Ireland. Taking family traditions and small everyday events such as a nosebleed or a head nod shared with a stranger as a starting point, Oluokun highlights the subtle gestures or encounters which create community. The artist's background in architecture allows them to translate these moments into visual works that are both spatial and experiential, exploring aspects of identity, culture, upbringing, family, and environment, with a vital and often humorous approach.
Below, we’ve shared a selection of collage works by the artist - some accompanied by poems, exploring how class, race and migration status effect how people move through the world, from the jobs they take to the spaces they occupy.
Oluokun is the winner of Autograph’s Open Call for Artists, running alongside I Still Dream of Lost Vocabularies, our exhibition featuring work by 13 artists all using collage practices to explore issues of political dissent and erasure. Oluokun's work was selected by a panel of judges from over 330 submissions.
"This work explores grief in relation to culture, gender and religion. Nigerian people can be very superstitious and tend to use language which tiptoes around the subject of sickness and grief. Growing up in the Pentecostal faith, people would use the church almost as a hospital; offerings were given to ensure good health and salvation, handkerchiefs would be blessed and passed on to the sick. Faith and ritual enabled grief and emotion to come forward, particularly for women." – Fiyin Oluokun
"Growing up, I’d frequently find my mum on the phone, discussing conversion rates, making scribbled notes of the numbers and sending naira to family in Nigeria." – Fiyin Oluokun
"Oluokun’s collages capture fleeting scenes from an interconnected life; each one depicts a small number of characters, most with gravity-defying astral afros, seemingly moving through an intergenerational exchange or encounter.” – Beulah Ezeugo
I thought I saw an angel last night.
His black knuckles wrapped around the steering wheel of an equally black car.
He sports a gold wedding band,
his car, a 'tacsai' roof sign and plexiglass partitions.
Foot always on the pedal,
driving towards the next light bill and away from government grants.
I thought I saw an angel last night.
He pulled socks over ashy ankles, and stuffed his boney hands into pockets.
Eyes shifty, jacket one size too big.
Watched from a distance while he works on huddled corners.
Phone always at the ready, waiting for some good news,
of boss’s death or at least another sale.
I thought I saw an angel last night.
His wide grin exposed gap teeth capped in gold.
Head down
ass up.
Notes sprayed at his tired feet, swallowed up quickly.
He doesn’t hold back, giving his all.
Maybe this time they’ll tip well, but he’ll never escape unharmed.
I saw an angel last night,
his arms clutching a gun that faces the ground
breath held, feet planted!
He’s a plastic soldier,
watching guard.
– Fiyin Oluokun
"I really wanted to explore textiles through this work. As a child of Nigerian immigrants, the Ghana Must Go bag feels like the ultimate symbol of migration and movement. And fabrics like lace are important in Yoruba culture - here the lace's delicacy stands in contrast to the violence and harship that many migrants experience." – Fiyin Oluokun
The advancement of economic forces on communal time is an ever-present spectre in Oluokun’s work. The artist’s background, growing up in Newbridge, County Kildare, provides an important context to the work, with Newbridge having grown into a commuter town in recent years.
Plate scrapers rock stolen gold chains, pearl clutchers interpolate rap lyrics.
Where do you fit in? With your bleeding black gums and two parents,
single pea on the fine china, mahogany and no heating.
Where do you fit in? With your hand-me-down jeans, cinched in with a fake gucci belt.
Swollen blue fingers burst open wedding bands.
Corner huggers watch with sunken eyes.
Wax seal on the overdue light bill
-made legible by yankee candle.
Where do you fit in with your lack?
Where do you fit in with your plenty?
With your wooden knuckles and gold teeth?
Plump cheeks carved into brass, a lint ridden cashmere sweater.
How'd you wedge yourself in?
Between fences.
How'd you wedge yourself in between white picket fences?
– Fiyin Oluokun
"Time and again I come back to family in my work. This is my mum’s side of the family, coming together – I wanted to humanise them and show their unbound joy when they’re in community." – Fiyin Oluokun
Fiyin Oluokun is a mixed media visual artist and architecture masters student whose work explores how environments shape and morph people’s identities. The subject of their work is pulled out of small encounters, gestures and interactions - a nose bleed, stepping on a shoe, a head nod at a stranger.
They use collage as a means of 'sampling'; layering poetry, found imagery and textures to create new narratives while referencing works that came before. Fiyin translates these simultaneously personal and wholly universal moments into visual works that are both spatial and experiential. Follow the artist on Instagram.
In October 2025, Autograph put out an Open Call for for artists working with photomontage. This image gallery is the result of that Open Call, selected by a panel of judges from over 330 submissions.
Banner image: Fiyin Oluokun, How Much / Oh Shalise [detail], 2025. © and courtesy of the artist.
All images on page: © and courtesy of the artist.
About the artist: Fiyin Oluokun, image by Davidhenry Uyovbisere.
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Autograph is a space to see things differently. Since 1988, we have championed photography that explores issues of race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice, sharing how photographs reflect lived experiences and shape our understanding of ourselves and others.
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