Ayobola Kekere-Ekun

Nigeria

Available works

Artist Bio

Ayobola Kekere-Ekun (b. 1993, Lagos) is a Nigerian artist whose 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 more serious topics such as self-perception and self-presentation, voyeurism, escapism and the workings of propaganda.

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

Watch this video to meet Ayobola in studio.

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.

Exhibitions

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