Yinka Ilori, joy is not a luxury

There is a through-line in everything Yinka Ilori makes, from a mural wrapping a building in East London to a plate you can buy for thirty pounds: the belief that joy is not a luxury. It is a right. And colour is how you claim it.

Ilori's practice is rooted in Nigerian parables — stories passed down through generations that carry moral weight in everyday objects and situations. His early chairs, sourced from London street markets and repainted in bold geometric patterns, were not furniture. They were storytelling devices. Each one held a proverb. Each one asked you to sit with it.

That idea has since expanded into architecture, public installations, homeware, and textiles — work that moves between gallery walls and living rooms without losing anything. Major brands and institutions have come calling, and rightly so. The store is the proof: affordable objects that carry the same visual language as the large-scale commissions. Nothing feels like a souvenir.