“My work is a constant search for the best way to interpret the ideas that I have about every woman I come across, and I do not limit myself to one medium, style, or concept,” Ronke Ladipo writes in her artist statement.
The Lagos-based artist, who proclaims herself self-taught, preens herself on her 20-year experience of making art. “My mother taught me how to make art,” she adds. “I am trying to achieve a better and safer world for everybody. I focus mostly on creating my padlock bags, which you can find on @rouchstore, and my paintings, which are currently on the Saatchi Art website.”
Speaking about Rouch, it creates handbags and furniture inspired by padlocks. For instance, her padlock-inspired chairs have armrests and legs that are made of steel and wooden seat shells that are covered with smooth leather. The idea is to “padlock [the end users] into comfort.”
Padlocks, for the ebony-complexioned artist who celebrates womanhood and often criticises her society, which she views as unsafe and sexist, are a metaphor for security. This is one reason why she named her recent body of work “Agadagodo,” a Yoruba translation for padlock. In the context of her studio practice, this is a call for the protection of the female gender in Nigerian society.
As a result, she believes that a good design or painting should be about more than just the artist’s creative ability, but also about what it communicates to a larger society.
Ladipo, by the way, also does portrait painting, abstract art, and leather crafting. Acrylic paint, she says, is her preferred medium.
Since her graduation from the fashion school Paris American Academy (PAA) and the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs organised by the US Consulate General, Lagos in 2021, she has worked as an art/fashion editor at a Lagos-based national daily newspaper as well as an art gallery manager at the Signature Beyond Art Gallery and The Art Exchange Gallery, as a curator for the kó Art Gallery for the 1-54 Contemporary Art Fair in London, UK, in April 2022, and Christie’s in Paris, France.
Besides featuring in both international and local exhibitions, she has participated in such fashion shows as African Fashion Week in New York, USA and African Fashion Week London, UK.
Ladipo, who is preparing for her next solo exhibition in Paris, declares: “I love experimenting with my art; this is why I always think outside the box. I seek inspiration from everything and anything; I also love to travel a lot for inspiration, and believe it or not, whenever I go horseback riding, I get inspired to paint my next project. My future hopes may sound cliche, but here they are: “world peace.” I would love to live in a world where there is peace all around. No global warming; no killing our brothers and sisters; no corruption; and no conflicts.”
