Modupeola Fadugba: The Chemistry of Water, Royal Watercolour Society (June 2026)
The RWS is proud to present The Chemistry of Water – an exhibition of new and recent works by artist Modupeola Fadugba. This special collaboration develops the RWS's expansion of the boundaries of contemporary watercolour practice, and reflects Fadugba's own investment in the materiality of her work.
Exhibition Website | RWS Website
Exhibition Booklet | Exhibition Trailer
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. 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 exhibition asks the question: what might watercolour become if we allow it to behave like water itself – fluid, adaptive, resistant – and always in relation to the wider world around it. The Chemistry of Water will be accompanied by live programming throughout the duration of the exhibition, layering multiple interdisciplinary voices to activate the works. These collaborations are the continuation of Fadugba’s The Artist’s Algorithm series – an ongoing, artist-led programme of essays, talks, games, performances, mentorship programmes, murals, and videos which aims to shed light on problems and collection solutions in education, politics, and governance through her art. It also takes place alongside Fadugba’s showcase at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition 2026, running from 16 June - 23 August 2026.
Modupeola Fadugba
(b. 1985, Lomé, Togo) is a multimedia artist who sees the world through a unique lens, one shaped by the analytical precision of her background in engineering and economics and the boundless creativity of her artistic spirit.
“It feels especially meaningful that this exhibition will take place in London, where I first encountered watercolour as a teenager. At the time, I understood watercolour as something complete in itself, gentle, observational, resolved. I could not have known then that I would return to that same medium years later, not to inherit it, but to stretch it, to test its limits, and to ask what it might become. Watercolour, as it is traditionally understood in England, carries with it a certain image: the artist seated outdoors, brush in hand, capturing a landscape in light washes. It is a medium associated with observation, with control disguised as fluidity. But water itself has never behaved this way. Water insists. It moves beyond instruction. It absorbs, disperses, reflects, and distorts. To be invited into a tradition is also to be asked what you will do with it, whether you will preserve it or push against it - with the works in The Chemistry of Water, I aim to do a little bit of both.”
“Fadugba’s work brilliantly encapsulates the RWS’ commitment to uplifting and expanding the medium, pushing the boundaries of contemporary watercolour practice. Through the vibrance of her materials and the language of this work, Fadugba stretches the medium from within. For years, Fadugba’s work has engaged with water—its resistance, its release—and we are delighted to support her further interrogation of the medium further, here in London, coinciding with the exciting London gallery Weekend.”
Anne Lynch, Member and Former Vice President of the Royal Watercolour Society
Installation Shots:
Dear Young Artist Performance at The Haymarket Hotel’s iconic Swimming Pool & Bar, 27th June 2026. This was the London premiere of Modupeola Faduga’s mentorship and commission series, featuring featuring the world’s leading professional synchronised swimming team: Aquabatix!
Dear Young Artist began in 2016 as a poem and mentorship project inspired by Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu and her essay “They Eat Because You Grow the Food”, in which Mutu reflects on artistic survival, self-definition, and the importance of building one’s own creative community. Modupeola Fadugba’s resulting poem emerged from similar questions around what it means to sustain an artistic practice over time, particularly within conditions of uncertainty, visibility, labour, and care.
The performance later evolved to be commissioned and performed globally, from Nigeria to New York and now London. The performers respond to the poem, moving through formations and gestures of coordination, relying on memory, rhythm, and collective trust. The pool becomes a metaphor for navigating instability – for artists learning to move through interruption, uncertainty, and changing conditions, while still maintaining connection to one another and creating a sum greater than their parts.
dear young artist (2016)
Dear Young Artist,
Before you dive into the deep end, I should tell you a few things:
Firstly, there is no shallow end. Tread slowly.
If no one has taught you to swim, you must quickly learn how to learn. Go with the flow and gradually, you will find your own pace.
Young artist, do you see that red ball in the corner? Yes, that big red one, there. Your very survival depends on it, but you must ignore it at first. Or at least pretend to. My young artist, all adults pretend. Ignore the ball. That is the first rule.
You see, young artist, rich people are quite fond of swimming pools. They will come here from time to time to watch you swim, bearing big red shiny balls. If you can manage it, put on a small performance for their pleasure. Do a little dance. Twirl. But don’t get carried away. Remember the first rule.
As you swim, young black woman artist, you must keep your hair plaited at all times. Other styles are a hassle for serious swimmers. They slow you down. As a woman, for obvious reasons, time is not on your side. Make haste.
But tread slowly.
Dear young artist, whether red balls abound or the red ball is a long swim away, know that this race is long. Far long after you are gone. And in the end, it is only with yourself.
Chasing the ball is tiring. And it’s all fun and games, until someone drowns.
Oh my dear young artist, you will tire often! When you do, if you must, rest against the pool’s edge. Whatever you do, young artist, stay in the pool. That is the second rule. Tread slowly, young artist.
You must continue swimming.
Modupeola Fadugba
