Yinka Ilori will present a new exhibition at Cristea Roberts Gallery this summer. Yinka Ilori: Joy Through Resistance opens on 5 June and runs until 11 July 2026, marking the artist’s first solo gallery exhibition in London, his home city. The show brings together new and recent works across painting, print, sculpture, immersive film and sound, offering an insight into themes that shape Ilori’s colourful visual language.
Born in North London to Nigerian parents, Ilori’s work draws on Nigerian storytelling traditions and parables, which he translates into contemporary design and public art. His projects, known for transforming urban spaces through bold colours and patterns, encourage participation and connection within communities. Previous presentations of his work include exhibitions at the Design Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts and the Saatchi Gallery, alongside public commissions across the UK and internationally.
The exhibition takes inspiration from Ilori’s own experiences and the resilience of the diaspora. Through layered imagery that combines the Nigerian yellow trumpet flower with the British daffodil and decorative lace motifs, the artist reflects on how cultural memory can transform hardship into a form of communal strength. A sculptural sound installation featuring handmade congas, a custom shekere and a drumkit, each wrapped in lace, anchors the exhibition’s central tension: the resonant pulse of percussion held within the fragility of textile. Presenting these ideas through a mix of media, the exhibition invites viewers to consider joy as a form of resistance.
The exhibition will be on view 5 June – 11 July 2026 at Cristea Roberts Gallery (43 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5JG).
Screenprint. Paper and Image: 75.0 x 75 cm. Edition of 30.
From: Paradise for All
