How Slawn Crashed the Art Establishment With These 10 Milestones

Slawn has transitioned from co-founding the Motherlan skate crew in Lagos to becoming a recurring figure in contemporary art and global commercial design. His career is characterized by a rapid integration into traditional creative institutions, moving from the skate parks of Nigeria to the auction rooms of Sotheby’s. The release of Hypebeast Magazine #37: The Architects Issue features a collaborative cover artwork created with artist Opake, alongside a wide-ranging interview with the art world provocateur.

Slawn’s recent output has expanded into a multidisciplinary brand infrastructure that spans fashion, music, and motorsport. This includes a custom livery for the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 team, the release of his Not An Artist album recorded during a live residency at Saatchi Yates, and a global sneaker collaboration with Nike. To understand his current trajectory, one must look at the specific projects that have moved his work from the studio into the center of the cultural landscape, from redesigning the BRIT Awards statuette to covering an F1 car in caricatures and graffiti-style motifs for the British Grand Prix.

Check them out below and purchase a copy of Hypebeast Magazine Issue 37 on HBX here.

Motherlan

The Motherlan Genesis

Before moving to London, Slawn co-founded Motherlan alongside friends Onyedi Akumani and Leo. Based in Lagos, the group operated as a skate collective and apparel brand, producing graphic-heavy streetwear and low-fidelity skate videos. The project focused on the local Nigerian skate scene, utilizing hand-drawn graphics and DIY production methods that established Slawn’s early visual style. This work eventually caught the attention of Skepta, who began wearing the brand and supporting the crew prior to Slawn’s relocation to the UK.

Louis Vuitton

The Louis Vuitton 200 Trunks Exhibition

In 2021, Virgil Abloh invited Slawn to participate in the 200 Trunks, 200 Visionaries exhibition, a global project celebrating the house’s bicentennial. Slawn used the heritage Louis Vuitton trunk as a canvas for his signature caricature illustrations and “lips” motif, applying acrylic and spray paint directly to the surface. The exhibition traveled through major cities including Paris, New York, and Los Angeles, placing his work alongside 199 other established designers and creatives. This project was a key moment for his entry into the luxury sector, demonstrating that his studio-driven, hand-drawn aesthetic could translate to a high-fashion context.

Sotheby’s

The Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated Auction

In September 2022, Slawn made his auction debut at Sotheby’s London during the “Contemporary Curated” series, which was guest-curated by Skepta. His featured work, Bobo n Jarrad Go To Church, was a large-scale canvas executed in acrylic and spray paint, showcasing his typical caricature-style figures. The piece sold for £25,200, significantly exceeding its initial estimate of £10,000–£15,000. This entry into a major auction house at age 21 was highly unusual, as it bypassed the traditional progression of multi-year gallery representation and established his work within a high-level secondary market.

The Brit Awards

The BRIT Awards Statuette

Slawn was commissioned to design the 2023 BRIT Awards statuette, making him the youngest designer and first Nigerian-born artist to receive the honor for the 43rd edition of the event. His design replaced the traditional singular figure with a bronze-cast trophy featuring three distinct caricature heads. The use of bronze was a specific reference to his heritage and the Benin Bronzes, while the removal of the standard Britannia helmet modified the award’s long-standing iconography. The final design retained the hand-molded textures of his studio work and was presented to winners during the live ceremony at The O2 Arena, marking his most high-profile mainstream project to date.

Courtesy Of Beau Beaus

The Opening of Beau Beaus

In May 2023, Slawn and his partner Tallula Christie opened Beau Beaus, a family-run cafe and creative hub in Aldgate East. Named after their son, the three-story space on Gravel Lane functions as a central base for his creative circle and the wider community. Beyond serving coffee and Jollof rice, the venue hosts recurring programming like a weekly Art Club, Chess Club, and creative masterclasses, while the upper floors are dedicated to wellness treatments. The interior features Slawn’s original work on the walls, and the space has become a regular meeting point for London-based artists and musicians, including frequenters like Unknown T and Central Cee.

Slawn

The Supreme Box Logo Redesign

In July 2024, Supreme collaborated with Slawn on a limited-edition Box Logo T-shirt. The design was first debuted by rapper Central Cee during his performance at Glastonbury, revealing that the brand’s standard Futura Bold Italic typeface had been replaced by Slawn’s signature hand-drawn script. Since Supreme rarely allows external artists to modify its primary “BOGO” logo, the project was a significant milestone in his career. It placed him among a very small group of collaborators who have been granted creative control over the brand’s core identity, further integrating his DIY aesthetic into the global streetwear market.

Saatchi Yates

The Saatchi Yates 1,000 Canvases Solo Show

In September 2024, Slawn opened a solo exhibition at the Saatchi Yates gallery in St. James’s, London. The installation featured a wall of 1,000 A4 canvases, with each piece depicting a unique variation of his signature caricature figures. Every work in the series was priced at a flat rate of £1,000 (GBP), a pricing strategy that moved away from traditional gallery tiering. The entire collection sold out within the first few days of the show, demonstrating a high volume of individual collectors interested in his physical output. This exhibition was his largest gallery-based project to date, focusing on the mass repetition of his studio-style illustrations.

Nike

The Nike Air Max 90 “Speckle” Collaboration

In March 2025, Slawn became the first Nigerian artist to collaborate on an official footwear release with Nike. The “Speckle” Air Max 90 incorporated his signature studio elements, featuring hand-drawn Swooshes and a custom “Ugly Bastard” logo on the heel. The launch was accompanied by a series of large-scale public installations across London, including 10-meter-tall inflatable figures of his caricature characters. The most notable of these was positioned on the bridge at the Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, turning the East London landmark into a temporary exhibition space for the drop.

Red Bull

The HUGO x VCARB F1 Livery

In July 2025, Slawn collaborated with HUGO and the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 team to create a custom livery for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The project involved a full-car wrap of the VCARB 02 chassis, which Slawn covered in his signature caricature illustrations and graffiti-style motifs. The collaboration was unveiled at the Flannels X store in London alongside drivers Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar. Beyond the car itself, Slawn designed the team’s race suits and pit garage, incorporating his Yoruba-influenced aesthetic into the technical environment of the paddock. The partnership was part of a broader “off-track” initiative by HUGO to merge Formula 1 with contemporary street culture.

John Cannon/ Gifted Talents

21 Savage and Slawn at The High Museum of Art

In December 2025, Slawn collaborated with 21 Savage for an exhibition at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta titled “What Happened to the Streets?” The event celebrated the release of the album of the same name, for which Slawn designed the cover art. The pop-up exhibition featured 15 original portraits of the album’s contributors, all rendered in Slawn’s signature caricature style. Installed outside the museum was a 20-foot inflatable sculpture modeled after the album cover — a visual reinterpretation of Kerry James Marshall’s 1980 painting, A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self. The project highlighted Slawn’s ability to integrate his DIY aesthetic into major institutional spaces and American hip-hop culture.

Saatchi Yates

The Saatchi Yates Living Studio Residency

In March 2026, Slawn held a month-long residency at Saatchi Yates in St. James’s, titled “Slawn’s Studio.” During the exhibition, the gallery was used as an active workspace where he produced new paintings in view of the public. Simultaneously, a recording booth was installed on the gallery floor to facilitate the production of his album, Not An Artist. Musicians including Unknown T and Jammer recorded their tracks within the space, merging the music recording process with visual art production. The residency resulted in a 16-track project recorded entirely on-site, providing a direct look at Slawn’s collaborative workflow and his move into multi-disciplinary output.

Read our full cover story on the art provocateurs here, and purchase Slawn’s cover of Hypebeast Magazine #37: The Architects Issue on HBX.