When it comes to the threshold between street and fine art, few artists have shown the rise in recent times than British-Nigerian artist Olaolu Slawn. The Motherlan co-founder and self-proclaimed ‘scam artist’ has dipped his toes in a variety of projects over the years, including one-off projects with rapper Big Zuu and Corteiz to taking over London’s Piccadilly Circus with CIRCA.
Roughly a year ago, Slawn took to X to tease a sculpture he was creating in his own image. Modeled after various characters he’s created in the past, such as his 2023 Brit Award statue, the figure depicts a hunched over man with a mischievous grin on its face. “You guys inspired me to make a sculpture in my image, this is the Ugly Bastard, say hello,” Slawn previously said in the post.
Entitled Ugly Bastard (2024), the forthcoming project will be fabricated by fellow London-based studio Avant Arte, which amongst its suite of releases, has worked recently with George Condo, Eddie Martinez and Ai Weiwei. Keep up to date with Slawn‘s work, as well as Avant Arte’s ongoing releases via Instagram.
You guys inspired me to make a sculpture in my image, this is the Ugly Bastard, say hello. pic.twitter.com/wSJ9HIlDa8
— ㅤ (@olaoluslawn) November 20, 2023
