Kiah M. Sandler in Conversation with Tunji Akintokun
Tunji Akintokun is the Senior Director at LinkedIn and leads the Marketing Solutions team for all of the UK and Ireland. He is also an avid art collector who has spoken on the importance of collecting with TEFAF, Artsy, The New York Times and more. He has amassed a particularly sizable collection of African Modern and Contemporary art objects that is motivated by his own Nigerian heritage. He welcomed me into his home to have our interview, where I could fully appreciate his choices and taste firsthand.
Tunji Akintokun in front of Tribal Marks Series III #13 by Babajide Olatunji. Photo courtesy of Tunji Akintokun. Photo by Alixe Lay.
Kiah Sandler: Tunji, you’re a former athlete, turned man of science, turned businessman, turned patron of the arts. What does accessibility in the art world mean to you? Have you always seen a place for yourself in the world of collecting, or did you find that you had to create that space for yourself?
Tunji Akintokun: The short story is, my mentor told me to invest in art as an asset. He firmly believed that the art market would outdo the stock market. And to this day—although pretty much most of the collection is African Modern and Contemporary art—my favourite genre is Surrealism, and my favourite artist is still Salvador Dalí—anything that he has, I'm just crazy about. From an accessibility point of view, and specifically with African Modern/Contemporary art, I think it's important to be accessible because our art tells a story, it tells our history, and probably more importantly, it sets the narrative for our culture. So, I think it's really important that it's accessible for all people, whether you’re of African heritage or not, to ensure that that story—those narratives, the history—is told and captured.
KS: How old were you when your mentor gave you that piece of advice?
TA: I was 20 years old. I was just about to go into my last year at university. I worked for him that summer. He was an entrepreneur. One of the other [things he told me to collect] which you'll probably relate to, being that your heritage is from Trinidad, is that he told me to collect rum. So I've got many, many rums from all parts of the Caribbean, which was another asset class. Some of them I can drink, some of them are a little bit expensive to drink, but I do try and have a nip every now and then.
KS: Getting that piece of advice so young and in the beginning of your career, was that a surprise to you? Were you already thinking you wanted to collect art one day? Or was that the first time that anybody had put you on to the art world, or told you that art is something that you can engage in no matter who you are?
TA: I think as an asset class, yes. I'm an engineer by trade, but I always had that interest in art. I was always interested in terms of science and how things work, but I like the artistic elements. And I often go and look at art. Even when I was younger and not yet consciously going around collecting, I'd go just to look and think, “wow, this looks amazing.” I’d wonder, how was that made? Or, how was that painted? It was always about the how part. When I was “enlightened” to the fact of collecting art as an asset class, I then started to explore more, making a conscious effort to go to museums, to galleries, and start to understand what I liked. I think that was when I really started my journey.
So by the time I graduated, I probably was about 24 or 25 when I bought my first piece of art. The interesting part was that I was drawn to African Modern Contemporary as a class of art to buy, probably because of the fact that I realised very, very early that Surrealism, and certainly Salvador Dalí, was way out of my price range. There used to be a gallery called Kaleidoscope, it was run by a gentleman who’s not alive anymore, Karl Barrie. I saw some amazing work in there. Some of it was Surrealism, some of it was African Modern and Contemporary. I just loved it and I asked him, where's this art from? And he said that a lot of it is from the continent, from Africa. That was the start of my journey. And I thought, oh, actually this is something I will really enjoy: collecting my heritage. So I consciously started in my mid-twenties to look at artists, to learn a little bit more about African art specifically, and visit more galleries. At that time, there weren't many galleries in London that were specifically African. So it was quite hard, but I did a lot of research and then started to gradually develop my collection as I got into my 30s.
Tunji Akintokun in front of a Polly Alakija painting. Photo courtesy of Tunji Akintokun. Photo by Alixe Lay.
KS: You later went on to establish The Ilesha Charitable Trust to honor your parents’ memory and influence, science, technology, sport, social mobility and diversity initiatives on a global scale. What’s been your main motivator in your philanthropic work?
TJ: Ilesha is a town in Nigeria. It's where my parents were from. I lost my parents quite young. I lost my father when I was two and my mum when I was 11. I got to a stage in life where I wanted to honour them and make sure there was a legacy in their memory for what they did in the world and when they were around. I spoke to a few people about what's the best way to do that, and I found that foundations and trusts were the vehicle which I could really bring that legacy to life. So the Ilesha Charitable Trust was born. I spent a little bit of time making sure we had a good brand, but spent probably the majority of the time looking at what the value would be, what we wanted to do, and what our purpose would be. As being an engineer was my background, I wanted to ensure that we helped artists and I wanted to ensure that we helped sports people, being an ex-athlete [myself]. The trust’s aim was to be able to look at if somebody was able to do something but just didn't have the right path or the means, then what could the trust do to help them? When I think about my mum specifically, that was one thing I remember dearly about her. She was always helping other people. She was a selfless woman. That's what I really wanted the spirit of the trust to be able to do. We were able to start to really look at how we brought that to life and it's been done in a number of different ways.
One of the artists we supported many years ago, she couldn't afford the paints and canvases. We supported her for two years, and then we were able to get her launched as an established artist. I think most of our funding has been in the form of scholarships or bursaries. I'm quite proud that we've been able to send many women of colour to some of our top universities in this country to be able to pursue, predominantly in STEM subjects, which again is aligned to the values of the trust, but also in other areas. One of the more interesting parts of the trust, and why people are often interested in what the trust does, is that the trust has its own asset, and that asset is the art collection. Ilesha Trust is the owner of the collection of art that we have, which is around 150 pieces now. That ensures that the legacy will continue long after I've gone. It gives them an asset they can leverage or liquidate, to be able to provide scholarships, bursaries, and grants for future generations. And hopefully, with my children and my wife as trustees, they'll be able to honour the trust and work well into the future.
KS: While your collection is obviously not African and Black art exclusively, that does make up the predominant majority. As somebody with Nigerian heritage, what is the significance of collecting art by Black artists from the Diaspora? What does that mean to you?
TA: It means a lot. It goes back to one of my earlier key points around narratives, heritage, and culture. I think often the Diaspora is rich in so many different ways and I feel personally obligated, and probably responsible, to do what I can to ensure that's preserved, but also encouraged so that the next generations that are coming through are able to be able to share their stories. Whether you're Caribbean or whether you're African, we know we have a joint heritage that will remain. For me, it's important that whether you're a collector or whether you're connected through the ecosystem to galleries or museums that we play our part to ensure that the correct narratives, the correct history, the correct truths and stories are told. In my early days, the majority of my collection was Sub-Saharan Africa centric because that's where I'm from. That's what I knew. As I've gotten older and over the last, say maybe the last decade, my North African art knowledge and collection has started to build because I think if you're gonna have an African collection, it needs to take in Africa in its entirety, and likewise the link to the Caribbean. So I think that for me is an important part of why the collection exists, and why I continue to showcase as many artists as we can to ensure that they get their opportunity to tell their story as well.
KS: Now, I know that people are going to be curious as to this collection that we keep referring to, so I would love to give you a chance to highlight either your most recent acquisition, or an acquisition that you're very proud of. Will you share a little bit about how you came across this piece, maybe what motivated you to buy it and what you like about it?
TA: Well, my most recent [acquisition] I bought was a piece of work by an artist called Caroline Chinakwe. She is a super talented photographer of Nigerian heritage based here in London. I actually met her just after you and I met for the first time through a mutual artist that I met that day. I went to see her show and met Caroline at that show. Ironically, I went to follow her on Instagram and while we were talking I looked at her work and thought, ‘I've seen your work before!’ I'd recognized having seen it at a restaurant and taken a picture of it, and I was able to show her. I was then invited to go down to her studio and have a look at some of her work, which is absolutely amazing. I bought a piece of art from her which was actually in one of the restaurants, which is a beautiful piece. So that's probably one of the most recent pieces I've bought. Another one is behind me, which is a large ceramic piece which is from an artist called Atinuke Badmus. I got it through a good friend of mine who runs the Yenwa Gallery in Lagos. I was very pleased to pick that up, and they're probably my two most recent pieces.
KS: That’s very much aligned with what we were talking about earlier, how when you are able to have a conversation with an artist, when you're able to understand process and their motivation, what it means to them, it makes such a difference. Iit changes your relationship with the piece forever.
TA: It does, absolutely.
Many thanks to Tunji Akintokun on behalf of MADE IN BED.
You can find more about Tunji Akintokun’s career and work on Instagram.
Kiah M. Sandler
Interviews Co-Editor, MADE IN BED