Oyinloluwa Ilesanmi
Fine art BA
Goldsmiths University of London
Specialisms: Textiles / Textiles - Mixed Media /
Location: London, United Kingdom
Oyinloluwa Ilesanmi
First Name: Oyinloluwa
Last Name: Ilesanmi
Specialisms: Textiles / Textiles - Mixed Media
Sectors:
My Location: London, United Kingdom
University / College: Goldsmiths University of London
Course / Program Title: Fine art BA
About
Oyinloluwa S Ilesanmi (b. 1999, Nigeria) is a British textile artist based in London.
Working primarily in collage tapestry, Ilesanmi’s practice is grounded in the material and symbolic possibilities of textile. She reconfigures Ankara fabric, renowned for its bold, rhythmic patterns and vivid colours, into richly layered compositions that explore ecology, mythology, and the psychological imprint of nature.
Her works draw on non-Western cosmologies and personal memory to conjure speculative landscapes: imagined environments that resist extractive histories and reimagine the relationship between land, spirit, and self.
Influenced by her background in fashion design, Ilesanmi approaches textile with a refined sensitivity to structure, surface, and storytelling. Her tapestries often function as visual portals; spaces of healing, refuge, and resistance, where cultural symbolism and environmental consciousness are intricately interwoven.
Through her use of pattern and layering, she evokes mythic narratives that speak to ancestral continuity and ecological transformation.
Her recent works have evolved into immersive installations that envelop the viewer in multisensory environments. These expanded spatial compositions deepen the ritual and meditative qualities of her tapestries, inviting reflection on the entangled futures of nature, spirit, and survival.
Views from Eden 9 - Tri-solar day 2025 150 cm x 289 cm Cotton textile Understanding the Three-Body Problem becomes an appreciation of life’s inherent fragility—its delicate balance forever teetering on the edge of chaos. Dawn breaks on Earth with a deceptive calm, blanketing us in a predictable serenity. But serenity is conditional. It lasts only until eyes open and are forced to reckon with the uncompromising light of day. Annihilation is the beauty of the Tri-Solar Day. A moment so overwhelming, so radiant in its destruction, that it becomes sublime.
Views from Eden 7 – Separation 2024 275cm x 159cm Cotton textile Rediscovering the closeness in separation and the boundless in-between through the Greek mythological story of creation. Yawning void, formless, darkness nothingness; Chaos. Out of Chaos, the first primordial deities emerge spontaneously. Notable two; first kin turned lovers is Gaia - the earth (mother) and Uranus - the sky (father). Uranus displeased with their incestuous offspring (The Titans, Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires) cast them the deep abyss, Tartarus - the underworld. Gaia perturbed from losing her children conspired with their son Cronus against Uranus. Swiftly ambushing his father, Cronus violently castrates Uranus hurling the source of his seed to the farthest corner of earth. The divine blood spreads across the land bringing fourth new era of life in unencumbered by the trauma moments before. Defeated Uranus casts the same curse of betrayal by kin onto Cronus before retreating to a life of shame and solitude.
Views from Eden 8 - Lily of the Valley 2025 209cm x 98cm Cotton textile Boundless, rolling plains of unparalleled beauty, a sacred terrain of quiet power and hidden renewal. The valley hums with forgotten songs, where lilies bloom like whispered prayers: symbols of return, of softness, of cycles unbroken. Here, beauty is not loud, it is enduring. Every petal holds the memory of joy once lost, and the quiet promise of its return. Source/ reference: memories of childhood exploration through fields around Beddau, South Wales.