Betty Ogun’s debut solo exhibition LOVE/FIGHT hits hard — but not without tenderness. Rooted in real-life women, her work explores the strategic power of softness, militant femininity, and the daily moves required to survive and thrive. With layers of memory, abstraction, and symbolic depth, her art challenges traditional portrayals of Black womanhood. We caught up with Betty to talk about LOVE/FIGHT, identity, survival, and why emotion is anything but passive.
Your debut solo exhibition LOVE/FIGHT delves into Black womanhood with powerful intensity. What drew you to that title, and how does it reflect your personal or artistic journey?
The work is about softness and resilience. It feels right to call it what it is – LOVE/FIGHT asks us to embrace love, and to accept the need to fight for it. I like that both words are nouns and verbs. I mean both.
Your work explores “militant femininity” and “feminine resilience.” How do these concepts evolve in your paintings, and how do they challenge traditional representations of femininity?
I’m exploring the empowerment of what’s already there. My work is rooted in real people, real life. These women aren’t muses, they’re commanders. In a world where a woman’s existence is political, I paint what I see. Softness becomes strategy.
Enjoy and Cheerleader reimagine the cheerleader figure through a subversive, layered lens. What inspired you to dismantle this familiar symbol and build something richer from it?
Real life, again. I grew up with women who were full of real life – joyful, tired, determined. I wanted to honour that. Enjoy is a woman dancing alone in her dress. It’s pure, and that purity is its own kind of power.
Much of your art moves between documentary and abstraction. How do you decide when to lean into one mode more than the other, and what role does personal memory play in that decision?
I don’t think it’s a conscious choice. Personal memory is always woven in, but sometimes clarity calls for one mode, and emotion calls for another. I follow where the work wants to go.
The repeated checkerboard motif across your textile work suggests a life strategy. How does the metaphor of chess influence your thinking around identity, power, and daily choices?
Life takes strategy. You win, lose, learn, adapt. The checkerboard reminds me that survival isn’t just instinct, it’s tactical. Especially as a young Black woman, it’s about making moves with discipline and determination.
Your Fight series portrays survival and struggle with both grit and grace. What emotional or political conversations were you hoping to open through these works?
Fight originally came from my love for martial arts, I gained so much strength. Training teaches you about others, and about yourself. Each piece holds inner conflict, vitality, and reflection. I want to open space for shared, emotional transformation and not just survival.
How did your time at Central Saint Martins and the Slade shape your voice as an artist – especially one so focused on overlooked narratives and visibility?
I realised early on at both places that simply making work about my existence was received as political. That sharpened my focus. It made me more deliberate about how I frame visibility and whose gaze I’m speaking to even if I don’t want to be.
This exhibition is also a collaboration with Tache Gallery, a space committed to early-career artists. What has it meant to debut LOVE/FIGHT in a space that so actively dismantles barriers?
I was given the space to take risks and speak without compromise; Tache’s support is rare and essential, especially for early-career artists.
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LOVE/FIGHT
18 September – 23 October 2025
Tache (Fitzrovia, London)