“Sorry, my life will stay still and then everything will just ghghghghgh,” says Olaolu Slawn, lolling his tongue as he gets up from a light-up stool in BeauBeaus to take yet another phone call. It’s a typical afternoon at the east London café and community hub, a venue filled with noise and creativity – his work is displayed haphazardly on the walls, above plush, worn sofas and wooden chairs – that the artist of the moment has been running with his girlfriend, Tallula Christie, since last May.
So far our interview has been punctuated by a series of rolling conversations with, among others, some local boys passing by in a rainbow of streetwear, a brunette woman I’m later told was Slawn’s first body-as-a-canvas subject (his most recent was the rapper Rubi Rose) and his uncle popping in. In the middle of all this, Slawn has been cleaning up the jollof rice that Beau, his 20-month-old toddler whom the café is named after, has spilled.
But then Slawn, 23, dressed in bright red and yellow casuals, has always been magnetic. In his teens, he and his friends created Motherlan, a buzzy streetwear brand in his home city of Lagos that won early support from Virgil Abloh, before he decided to move to London six years ago, enrolling in a graphic design degree at Middlesex University. In lockdown, he met Tallula, now 22. Then he started painting, creating the bold, satirical sambo-by-Keith Haring works that he and Tallula started to sell on Instagram, leading to commissions from Louis Vuitton and, last year, to Slawn becoming the youngest artist to design a Brit Award.
“I like to tickle people where they don’t like to be tickled,” he says today, with a glint in his eye, of works that are as provocative as his puckish sense of humour – charged canvases that feature minstrel figures and predatory white faces. Collectors now include A$AP Rocky, designer Tremaine Emory and Skepta, whom he collaborated with on a painting for the latter’s first foray into the art world. (“Say Elon Musk,” he texts, joking, when I later check the list.) Other names who really have walked through his Mile End studio? Wizkid, Jorja Smith – even Jeremy Corbyn. “I like to paint with people that don’t paint, so that they can experience it... I think everyone can paint, they just never tried.”
Then there is Beau, who at almost two years old has experienced a life many adults could only dream of: photographed for a Burberry campaign; taken on stage in Central Cee’s arms at Glastonbury to perform “Sprinter” opposite Dave; walking the Mowalola show at London Fashion Week; even playing the keyboard with family friend Frank Ocean. But in Slawn’s world, that’s just what quality time looks like. “I try to involve him in work as much as I can, so I don’t miss any parts of his life,” he says, smacking big kisses all over Beau’s tiny, grinning face.
I turn to Tallula. What’s something she feels gets misunderstood about them? “My tattoos,” Slawn interjects (inked all over, I can count something like five on his forehead alone). “People don’t know the type of father he is,” says Tallula. “They get a small screenshot and make a very broad assumption.”
Beau has proved a grounding force for his parents. “He was getting the recognition, but not deep-seated satisfaction,” recalls Tallula of Slawn’s whirlwind rise. “Sometimes you just can’t beat the simple things. Having a kid is one of those things that, like, every cliché is true.” They decided to try and she was delighted to become a mother at 21. “I feel like these days that sounds so old-fashioned and not educated enough, but I always knew that that’s what I wanted to do.” Alongside her acupuncturist mum, Tallula takes care of the operations and day-to-day running of the café: social media, programming, licensing (and the flat whites are amazing).
As we talk, a chess club is taking place downstairs. There are a handful of people playing, all different ages – from a man in his 60s to a preteen girl. Other days, there might be music or art clubs or talks, that anyone, if they’re a fit, can start. Tallula sees many of the young people running them as family now. In fact, a mother recently sent her a voice note, thanking them for recognising her son’s artistic potential. “I don’t know if it was having a son myself, but that really touched me,” she says, getting emotional.
It’s a way for Slawn to give back too. “Have you ever had those days when you just leave your house and you’re like, ‘I want to go somewhere but I don’t know where to go’?” His eyes twinkle. “You can just come here and you’ll meet someone.”
Main image: Slawn with his partner, Tallula, and son, Beau. Sittings editor: Jessica Gerardi. Grooming: Gianluca Concadoro. Hair: Hiroshi Matsushita. Make-up: Quelle Bester. Nails: Trish Lomax. Digital artwork: The Hand of God. With thanks to Dot Imaging
Olaolu Slawn: 1000 Canvases will be at Saatchi Yates from 12 September to 17 October 2024
