Ayobola Kekere-Ekun

Nigeria

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
Awards 
  • Absa L’Atelier 2021Awards, Gerard Sekoto Award

Selected Works

High Stakes. Suit 2. No 3

2025
Paper strips and acrylic on canvas
51 x 40.5 x 3.5 cm
63.5 x 53.5 x 5.5 cm (framed)

High Stakes. Suit 4. No 2

2025
Paper strips, fabric and acrylic on canvas
51 x 40.5 x 3.5 cm
63.5 x 53.5 x 5.5 cm (framed)

Ajah Confessional V

2024
Mixed Media (Paper and Acrylic on Canvas)
60 x 60 cm

The Crown XII

2019
Mixed Media (Paper, fabric, faux pearls and Acrylic on Canvas)
122 x 91 cm

The Crown VII

2019
Mixed Media (Paper, fabric, faux pearls and Acrylic on Canvas)
122 x 91 cm

The Crown IX

2019
Mixed Media (Paper, fabric, faux pearls and Acrylic on Canvas)
122 x 91 cm

Sign up to our newsletter

Keep up to date with contemporary art from sub-Saharan Africa

Keep me up to date