“The skin for me, that’s where my career kind of started. The skin was an access point. I started drawing in this patterned style back in 2004 and all I wanted to do—not really thinking a lot about race but it became race—was this idea of ‘What does skin feel like?’ when you’re defined by something. I came to the U.S. when I was five years old from Nigeria and had no knowledge of American history and was crash-coursed into it.“—Toyin Ojih Odutola
[Toyin Ojih Odutola (b. 1985), Between the Margins, 2017. Charcoal, pastel and pencil on paper, 24 x 19 in. ©Toyin Ojih Odutola. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York]