Biography

Yasmin Teniola Idris is a British-Nigerian, Yoruba artist whose work explores fictional worlds that reimagine existence beyond systemic oppression. Her practice combines painting, film, architectural design, and installation. 

 

Inspired by her love of sci-fi and fantasy, she created the MaybeArt Universe, a fictional space where she develops stories that explore both personal and collective histories. Within this universe, she has built two distinct worlds: New Age Matrix, which examines Afrofuturism and neo-colonialism by addressing socio-political issues through a futuristic lens, and the Chaos Dimension, an intricate network of realms that serves as a visual representation of her neurodiverse mind, where consciousness takes physical form.

 

Her work investigates ancestry, memory, dreams, the unconscious, alternate realities, and identity. Influenced by Simon O’Sullivan’s Fictioning and theories of consciousness by Michael Newton, Freud, and Jung, she uses dream journaling and automatism to reveal messages from the unconscious as a gateway to ancestral knowledge, the spiritual realm, and suppressed histories.

 

Idris was awarded a postgraduate scholarship to complete her MA Fine Art at Central Saint Martins. Her work has been shown at V&A Late, Soho House Electric Cinemas, Vanner Gallery and Sky Sports, and is part of the Cooley art collection. She received an Arts Council National Lottery Grant for New Age Matrix.