Ayobola Kekere-Ekun

Nigeria

Available works

Instagram

About the Artist

Ayobola Kekere-Ekun (b. 1993, Lagos) is a Nigerian artist working in South Africa. Her practice brings together her interests in advertising, popular culture, gender, portraiture and Nigerian politics. Using a method of paper craft called quilling, she creates seemingly benign images that evoke the frivolities of selfie culture, while referencing gender, mythology, memory, and trauma.

Kekere-Ekun’s work has been exhibited in multiple group shows in Lagos, Los Angeles, Johannesburg, London and beyond. Her first solo exhibition (2019) at Rele, Lagos was supported by a grant awarded by the Dean Collection, a collection created by celebrities Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz. Her first Johannesburg solo took place at Guns & Rain in 2020, and in 2021 she was the recipient of the ABSA l’Atelier Award.

She holds a BA (Hons) in Visual Arts and an MA in Graphic Design from University of Lagos. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Art and Design at the University of Johannesburg, examining advertising campaigns, place-branding and visual codes deployed by the Lagos state government. Kekere-Ekun has recently been awarded her PhD in Art and Design from the University of Johannesburg.

Watch this video to meet Ayobola in studio.

Exhibitions

2025 Winners Take All, Solo Exhibition, Guns & Rain, Johannesburg
2025 Her Gaze: A Woman’s Truth, Group Show, Rele Gallery, London
2025 Between Us & the Stars, Group Show, BKhz Gallery, Johannesburg
2024 DECADE : 10 Years of Guns & Rain (group exhibition), Johannesburg
2022 Refuge: an uncommon home, Absa Gallery, Johannesburg
2022 Karoo National Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
2021 She and I, Group Show, Unit London Gallery, London
2021 Get A Load Of This. Group show, Daniel Rapheal Gallery
2021 The Invincible Hands, Group show, Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art, Lagos
2020 UNTITLED, Art, Miami OVR
2020 High Stakes, Guns & Rain, Johannesburg
2020 Making Matter: Materiality and technology in Nigerian Art, Group Show, Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art, Lagos,
2019 Young Contemporaries Alumni Group Show, National Museum, Lagos
2019 Resilient Lines (Solo exhibition), Rele Gallery, Lagos
2019 Guns & Rain, Latitudes Art Fair, Johannesburg
2019 Guns & Rain, Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg
2019 “Suffrage”, Women’s Group Show, Guns & Rain, Johannesburg
2019 Solo show: ‘Resilient Lines’, Rele Art Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria
2018 Artyrama, ArtX, Lagos
2017 Artyrama Launch Exhibition, Group Show, Lagos
2017 Idanimo, Group Show, Terrakulture Gallery, Lagos
2017 In Honour of Professor Bolanle Awe, Group Show, Museum of the Institute of Africa Studies, University of Ibadan.
2017 Her Story, Group Show, Rele Gallery, Lagos
2016 Dysmorphia & Other Thoughts, Joint Show, Ake Arts and Book Festival
Abeokuta, Nigeria
2016 Life in my City Art Festival Enugu, Nigeria
2016 SAO and The Muse, Group Show, SAO Cafe, Lagos
2016 Young Contemporaries, Group Show, Rele Gallery, Lagos