Bio

Born in Yorkshire, Tayo Adekunle (b.1997) is a British Nigerian photographer based in London. She graduated with a BA(Hons) in Photography from Edinburgh College of Art in 2020. Working a lot with self-portraiture, she uses her work to explore issues surrounding race, gender and sexuality as well as racial and colonial history. Her work is centred around the reworking of historical tropes relating to the black female body, taking from contexts that include art historical paintings and sculptures as well as 19th century colonial photography. By placing historical imagery in a contemporary context, the relationship between the treatment of the black female body in the past and its treatment in the present day is explored.

CV


Education

BA (Hons) Photography, Edinburgh College of Art, 2016- 2020


Solo Exhibitions

2023 - Tayo Adekunle, The Scottish Arts Society

2022 - Tales from an Absent Truth - Studio Chapple, 10 Greatorex Street

2021 -  Tayo Adekunle, Workplace Foundation

Group Exhibitions

2023 - Reframe: The Residency Exhibition, Southbank Centre

Reclamation - Otherlandz, London Art Fair

2022 - Companion, Workplace Foundation

StART MMG Emerging Artist Prize, Saatchi Gallery

Un/Sense, Christie's

Otherlandz, London

Queer/in/g Nature, Ledward Centre, Brighton

Mis(sing) Information, Perth Museum and Gallery 

Hysterical, no format Gallery 

RSA  New Contemporaries 2022, The Royal Scottish Academy

2021 – SSA 123rd Annual Exhibition, The Royal Scottish Academy

Touch: The Politics of Physicality - ACall Festival, Hackney Downs Studios

Mindshift Exhibition, The University of Edinburgh

2020Futureproof 2020, Street Level Photoworks 

COUP DE FOUDRE, Insurgency Gallery and Five Years 

THIS IS TOMORROW CALLING (Wishing you were here), Alt_D at Zembla Gallery 

A Quest That’s Just Begun, Wooosh Gallery with Generator Projects

Alt_D Alternative Graduate Showcase (Online)

Buffering… Final Year Exhibition, Edinburgh College of Art

2019 - She__. Exhibition, Whitespace Gallery

Butter On Bacon, Hospitalfield, Arbroath

2018 - Material Dialogues, Fire Station, Edinburgh

2017 - ECA End of Year Exhibition, DOK Space


Residencies

Reframe, Southbank Centre, London, 2023

Stately Homes Project, Leeds Playhouse, Leeds, 2022 - 2023

ECA Micro-Residency, Hospitalfield, Arbroath, Dundee


Commissions

Fitting the Character  for The University of Edinburgh, MindShift Exhibition, 2021


Awards

Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show Purchase Prize, 2020

Clason-Harvie Bursary, 2020

Astaire Art Prize 2020 - Shortlisted Artist


Publications

EXIT Media - Jul 2023

Dazed - March 2022

It's Nice That - October 2021

British Journal of Photography, Ones to Watch Issue, July/ August 2021

British Journal of Photography, Feb 2021

The Delicate Rebellion Magazine, The (Un)Influenced Issue, Issue 2, 2021

The Skinny, September 2020

No! Wahala Magazine, September 2020

Source Graduate Supplement in Source, Issue 101, Summer 2020

Abridged 0-60: Echo, June 2020

Edinburgh Scotsman, 26th June 2020

ROOT-ed Zine, Issue 10, January 2020


Talks

In Conversation: Tayo Adekunle and Arike Oke, Workplace Foundation, 2022

Re-Using Archives, Embassy Gallery, 2021

Glasgow Zine Library, 2020


TV

BBC Loop Shorts: Rediscovering my Black Body through Photography


Collections

Reclamation of the Exposition #03, Artefact #03 and Degree Show Proposal, The University of Edinburgh Art Collection, Edinburgh, 2020








Using Format