The Chemistry Water
5 – 27 June
RWS Gallery
3 - 5 Whitcomb Street, London WC2H 7HA
The Royal Watercolour Society is proud to present The Chemistry of Water – an exhibition of new and recent works by artist Modupeola Fadugba.
This special exhibition develops the RWS's expansion of the boundaries of contemporary watercolour practice, and reflects Fadugba's own investment in the materiality of her work. Rather than treating watercolour as a fixed set of materials, the show considers it as a set of behaviours: flow, absorption, resistance, and reflection.
The Chemistry of Water continues Fadugba's wider practice – from Lagos and beyond – where water has been as much a subject as a condition; something that guides both how her figures move and how her materials behave. Acrylics are thinned and layered to act like watercolours, creating transparency and movement. Burnt surfaces alter the way pigment is absorbed. Beads interrupt and redirect its flow. Resist techniques hold space against it.
The exhibition will be accompanied by live programming throughout the duration of the exhibition, layering interdisciplinary voices to activate the works. It also takes place alongside Fadugba’s showcase at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition 2026, running from 16 June - 23 August 2026.
Flamingo Socks, 2026, Acrylic, ink, and beads on burned Canvas, 73 x 46.5 in |185.42 x 118.11cm
Pink Socks stages an equestrian figure in ceremonial agbada robes atop a vivid pink horse, the composition layered in crimson, ochre, and deep plum, with scorched voids rippling across the surface. Beaded fringe frames the work in regality and fragility, while the rider's facelessness resists singular identity — transforming the figure into a vessel for collective tradition, pageantry paused and turned inward.
Coral Yoruba Rider, 2026, Acrylic and beads on burned Canvas, 74 x 45 in | 187.96 x 114.3 cm
The Yoruba Rider pays homage to master sculptor Lamidi Fakeye, reinterpreting his iconic equestrian form as a symbol of cultural continuity and memory. By translating sculpture into paint, Fadugba creates a dialogue between past and present, honouring Fakeye's contribution to Yoruba visual culture while reflecting on how traditions and artistic influences flow across generations, adapting while retaining traces of their source.
Gold Benin Rider, 2025, Acrylic, metal leaf, and beads on burned canvas, 77 x 45 in|195.58 x 114.3 cm
Benin Rider reinterprets a historic Benin bronze in acrylic and metal leaf against a fire-scarred lavender ground, with cascading beads framing the canvas in arcs of Yoruba ceremonial adornment. The scorched surface, echoing the fire integral to traditional Benin bronze casting, fuses process with metaphor, transforming the rider into a symbol not only of power, but of survival, rupture, and restoration.
Mint Lace Line Up, 2026, Acrylic, ink, and graphite on burned canvas, 76.4 x 44 in|194.056 x 111.76cm
Mint Lace Line Up stacks swimmers in a column that reads as both choreographic formation and formal composition — each figure upright yet distinct, their forms textured by burning that maps the canvas's own history of transformation. The mint ground functions as depth, a pool seen from the side, while a single bead at one swimmer's cap introduces the smallest glint of green against the cool palette.
Periwinkle Lace, 2026, Acrylic, graphite, ink and beads on burned Canvas, 78.5 x 50.5 in.|199.39 x 128.27cm.
Periwinkle Lace portrays a woman on horseback amid the Ojude Oba Festival, isolating and elevating her figure against the lively scene. The work extends Fadugba's commitment to depicting women with depth and dignity, offering a quiet yet powerful reflection of feminine strength and visibility within a richly cultural context.
Pink Confetti, 2025, Acrylic, graphite, ink, and metal leaf on burned Canvas, 71×46 in.|180.34×116.84 cm
Pink Confetti expands the checkerboard horizon of Mint Side Up II in scale and colour. Overlapping swimmers in teal, lavender, gold, and burgundy fill the canvas, while metal leaf and burn marks animate the surface. A multicoloured checkerboard band crowns the composition, suggesting a pixelated image dissolving into colour — the series's themes of collective presence resolved in their most festive register.
Mint Side Up II, 2025, Acrylic, graphite, ink and metal leaf on burned Canvas, 47 x 34.5 in|119.38 x 87.63 cm
In Mint Side Up II, Modupeola Fadugba captures a familiar swimmer’s instinct, the playful moment of turning upside down beneath the water. She transforms this fleeting action into a composed visual memory, where swimmers lift their legs, flicking and splashing through mint tones and gold leaf. Scattered confetti-like tiles add a dreamlike brightness, almost childlike in their joy and chaos.
The work also reflects what the artist has learned over years of practice: that discipline and play are not opposites, and that mastery comes from embracing experimentation, risk, and freedom within structure.
Squad Side Up, 2025, Acrylic, graphite, ink, and metal leaf on burned Canvas, 51.2 x 44.5 in|130.048 x 113.03 cm
Squad Side Up transforms a swimmer's playful instinct, turning upside down beneath the water, into a meditation on perception and freedom. Figures move through a vibrant blue field of confetti-like forms, their inversion challenging conventional ways of seeing and reflecting the artist's belief that discovery lives in the interplay between discipline and play.
Coral Crossing, 2025, Acrylic on burned Canvas, 44 x 34.5 | 111.76 x 87.63 cm
Presented within The Chemistry of Water, Coral Crossing depicts an African male rider mounted on a horse in coral, bringing together terrestrial and marine worlds in a symbolic journey of movement, resilience, and connection. The coral horse, built over centuries by countless living organisms, embodies collective memory, adaptation, and survival, transforming the rider’s passage into one guided by the accumulated knowledge and endurance of generations. As the figure traverses an undefined landscape, the work reflects on water as a medium through which histories, people, and ideas travel, evoking movement across continents, cultures, and states of being. Through this striking union of rider and coral steed, Fadugba highlights the fragile yet enduring structures that sustain human journeys and connect us across time and place.
Periwinkle Patriot, 2026, Acrylic, graphite, and ink on burned Canvas, 65.7 x 44 in|165.1 x 111.76 cm
Periwinkle Patriot draws inspiration from Nigeria's Ojude Oba Festival, reflecting on the invisible forces that unite people across generations. Through the image of the horse, a central symbol of prestige and celebration in the festival, Fadugba explores how recurring gatherings strengthen the social bonds that sustain communities over time. As water forms through the coming together of separate elements, so too is human connection built through shared tradition and collective ritual.
Mint Train, 2026, Acrylic, graphite, and ink on burned Canvas, 65 ×44 in.|165.1×111.76 cm
Mint Train captures a quiet moment of movement and shared journey. Rendered in cool mint tones and black suits, the mint hue marks the artist's personal transition from monochromatic palettes to a more expressive use of colour. Like Fadugba's Pink Train, this dynamic composition remains a symbol of collective experience, embodying growth, experimentation, and creative evolution.
Put on a Show, A Dance, A Twirl, 2025, Acrylic, graphite, ink, and metal leaf on burned Canvas, 71×46 in.|180.34×116.84 cm
Put on a Show, A Dance, A Twirl unites the synchronised swimmer, as a figure of collective empowerment, with the art world, a body of water to be navigated with care. Anonymous figures circle a gold field of metal leaf on burned canvas, individual identity dissolved into shared motion. At the centre, a red circle holds the work's core tension, part commercial red dot, part inner compass, a caution against mistaking recognition for destination.
In Liquid Bronze II, 2026, Acrylic and metal leaf on Canvas, 72 x 60 in|182.88 x 152.4 cm
In Liquid Bronze II, Modupeola Fadugba presents a solitary figure of Modupeola swimming through bronze-toned water, immersed in shimmering bronze leaf. The surface glows with warmth and depth, turning movement into a meditative passage between stillness and flow. Rooted in the artist’s ongoing practice of self-assessment and reflection, the work invites the viewer to challenge the ordinary and turn inward. It becomes a space where resilience, identity, and transformation quietly unfold.
Portrait of an Artist at Ease (Bronze), 2026, Acrylic on Canvas, 72 x 60 in|182.88 x 152.4 cm
Portrait of an Artist at Ease (Bronze) marks a reflection on ten years of artistic growth, portraying Fadugba in quiet contemplation against black water and a restrained bronze and black palette. Eyes closed, gently smiling, the figure embodies confidence and acceptance. This bronze iteration revisits an earlier gold version, recipient of the 2025 Norval Sovereign African Art Prize, reaffirming that achievement is not an endpoint but part of a continuing process of reflection and renewal.
