Precious Okoyomon is a visual artist and writer from Brooklyn, New York. In February 2019, she compiled a personal top-ten list for the renowned magazine Artforum. Along with her love for Chinese food, the list makes clear her stance on global political issues and events. Poetry is her most important mode of expression, in reception as well as production.

The wallpaper for the evn collection, her first piece in Austria, is a combination of her literature with visual elements. The central motif is a small figure seen from a dominating top view. It is scattered many times in a pattern across the wall. Actually, only the head is clearly visible, as the body swims in white clouds. It sits in a colorful arrangement of flowers. The figure appears to be dancingin any case it swings its bare head so strongly, that the edge of its collar seems to vibrate. Dynamic and movement, along with the vibrant colors, are the decisive elements. The text, laced around the small ensemble like a banderole, picks up this momentum and also forces the viewer into a form of movement. And the words, delicately and set like filigree, also oscillate in our heads: „Neither Heaven or Solace… in the Wind Only Quenched in Light… I am Still Here...“

Precious Okoyomon studied at Shimer College in Chicago. The artist had her first institutional exhibition at the schwarzescafé in the Luma Westbau in Zurich in the spring of 2019. Her work has been shown at the 13^th Baltic Triennial and together with Hannah Black in a double exhibition at Real Fine Arts, New York. Okoyomon has read her texts at The Kitchen and in the Artist’s Space in New York, as well as in the London Serpentine Galleries. Her work is part of the Rubell Family Collection. Her first book, Ajebota, was published in 2016 by Bottlecap Press and her second, But Did U Die?, will be released by Birds LLC.

evn sammlung, 2020 (translation: Virginia Dellenbaugh)