Kayode Ojo: EDEN
Publisher: David Zwirner Books/52 Walker
Publication Date: 2025
Curator’s note by Ebony L. Haynes. Text by Serubiri Moses Forthcoming January 2025 Kayode Ojo’s sculptural installations made of ready-made items prompt reflections on class, consumption, and the fragility of luxury.
“There is a sense of urgency in these fleeting collisions between fashion and art. It’s the kind of tenuous exchange between culture and commerce that he does best.” —W magazine
Replete with sequins, chrome finishes, and transparent and reflective surfaces, Ojo’s sleek sculptures move between the related visual languages of delicate minimalism and glittering opulence, foregrounding the transformative power of the material object and its ability to transport its owner through dimensions of time, place, and social status. Sourcing his materials from fast-fashion websites and online shopping hubs, the artist weaves the familiar cadences of searching, scrolling, purchasing, and receiving into his nimble artistic practice. Ojo works instinctively to refashion these items into poetic yet perverse arrangements that make visible the phenomenon of social aspiration, unveiling its double-edged nature as a facilitator of both belonging and instability.
The texts in this volume, including a curator’s note by Ebony L. Haynes and an essay by Serubiri Moses, explore Ojo’s influences and examine the consumerism that is both called out by and a central component of the artist’s creative practice.
Details
Publisher: David Zwirner Books/52 Walker
Contributors: Kayode Ojo, Ebony L. Haynes, Serubiri Moses, Clarion
Publication Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781644231562
Retail: $35 | $47 CAN | £25
Designer: Andrea Hyde
Printer: Verona Libri, Verona
Binding: Hardcover
Dimensions: 6.5 × 9.25 in | 16.5 × 23.2 cm
Pages: 88
Reproductions: 32 illustrations
Artist and Contributors
Kayode Ojo
Born in Cookeville, Tennessee, Kayode Ojo (b. 1990) received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in 2012. Ojo has had solo presentations at galleries worldwide, most recently at Von Ammon Co., Washington, DC (2023); Università Iuav di Venezia, Venice (2022); Sweetwater, Berlin (2021); Martos Gallery, New York (2020); Praz-Delavallade, Los Angeles (2020); Galerie Balice Hertling, Paris (2018); and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (2018).
Ebony L. Haynes
Ebony L. Haynes is a writer and curator from Toronto. She is based in New York, where she is a senior director at David Zwirner and curator of 52 Walker.
Serubiri Moses
Serubiri Moses is an independent writer and curator who currently lives in New York. He is cocurator for the fifth edition of the contemporary art survey Greater New York at MoMA PS1, Long Island City. In 2020 and 2021, he served as an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Hunter College, where he taught contemporary African and Black art history.
Clarion
The Clarion series of illustrated publications is positioned as an extension of each exhibition at the groundbreaking gallery space 52 Walker, curated by Ebony L. Haynes. The program focuses on showcasing conceptual and research-based artists from a range of backgrounds and at various stages in their careers. The series title is derived from the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, the oldest of its kind, at the University of California, San Diego. Octavia Butler attended this workshop in the 1970s. Butler’s writing has been influential in the conceptual framework of the program and the Clarion series. With a sleek design influenced by encyclopedias, each publication features color reproductions of the works on view, alongside an introduction by Haynes, commissioned essays, artist texts, archival materials, and more.
$35