Femi Themen is a British-Surinamese artist, brought up in Coventry, and currently based in London. She treats her practice as a site of reflection and inquiry into interpersonal and collective interiorities; wrangling with the weight of grief, challenges to one’s agency, and the desire for intimacy. Drawing from the socio-political foundations of Jazz and Blues, Femi builds antiphonical relationships between and within her works by playing with sculptural gestures and textural motifs. 

Through repetitive labour-intensive material processes, and an expansive use of found objects, the work becomes a record of her relationship with ‘difficult’ feelings, experiences and conversations. Primarily working with sculpture and sound, Femi employs modes of craftmanship, rhythm and voices that hold social and spiritual ties to her multicultural heritage.

Femi completed her BA in Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art, with an exchange at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago. 

Download CV here


Exhibitions

2026        (Quiet) Reckoning, Subtitle Labs, London (further details here)

                  Spill, Slade School of Fine Art, London

2025         Carpe Diem, Safehouse, London (further details here)

                 Ongoing Going On, The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London
   
                 Building Site, Slade School of Fine Art, London
       
2024        Collecting Dust Among Other Things, THE GARAGE, Chicago
   
                Collectivist II, Deptford Market Yard, London (further details here)

               The Grounds From Which We Grow, Addis Fine Art Gallery, London (further details here)

2023         Papillon, Dalston Den, London (more information here)Education

2026            BA Fine Art, Slade School of Fine Art, UK

2022            Foundation Diploma in Arts and Design, Central Saint Martins, UK



Awards

2026            Audrey Wykeham Prize 

2025            The Herbert Seaborn Memorial Scholarship

2021–26       The James Lewis Foundation Scholarship 



Residencies

2026            Subtitle Night Residency, Subtitle Labs, UK 

© Femi Themen