204. Joseph Mobolaji Aina - Autonomous landscape

2026
Oil on Canvas
11.5 x 16.5 cm

Joseph Mobolaji Aina’s practice explores the psychological and emotional landscape of a man of Nigerian heritage living within British society. Drawing on personal experience while maintaining an analytical distance, the work functions as both biography and document — a speculative autobiography that examines identity, memory, transgression, and belonging through painting and installation. Informed by studies in Psychology and Law, Aina uses systems of analysis to interrogate structure, behaviour, and meaning, often suggesting narrative through material, atmosphere, and spatial construction.

Working across painting and immersive installation, Aina creates environments that operate as psychological landscapes. Rather than depicting nature directly, these spaces examine the underlying structures that shape human experience and social identity. Fragments of allegorical narrative recur throughout the work, alongside motifs such as clouds and open skies, which function as shifting symbols of transcendence, spirituality, uncertainty, and revelation. These luminous, unstable forms disrupt fixed interpretation and encourage contemplation.

At the centre of the practice is an expanded understanding of landscape painting. While grounded in painting, Aina questions what a landscape can be, blurring distinctions between interior and exterior space, memory and physical environment, figuration and abstraction. Canvases dissolve into abstract passages, while installations reposition paintings and objects to challenge conventional modes of viewing. Through these strategies, the work seeks to expand definitions of both painting and landscape, transforming them into spaces for psychological, spiritual, and social inquiry.

Aina completed an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art, London (2020–2022), following a Diploma in Fine Art at the Royal College of Art (2019–2020), and studies in Psychology and Law at the University of Kent (2014–2018).

Solo exhibitions include Celestial Contemplations at Ada Gallery, Ghana (2024); Perugia at Affinity Gallery during NADA Miami (2023); and Looking for a Saviour at Prior Art Space, Berlin (2022).

Group exhibitions include Poetics of Becoming at the Royal College of Art, London (2025), and After Sun in Dubai and London (2025).

Awards and distinctions include a student scholarship for the MA Painting programme at the Royal College of Art (2022), being shortlisted for the Valerie Beston Award from Artist Trust (2022), and Entrepreneur of the Year at the University of Kent (2016).