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.
BA (Hons) Photography, Edinburgh College of Art, 2016- 2020
2023 - Tayo Adekunle, The Scottish Arts Society
2022 - Tales from an Absent Truth - Studio Chapple, 10 Greatorex Street
2021 - Workplace Foundation
2023 - 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
2020 – Futureproof 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
Fitting the Character for The University of Edinburgh, MindShift Exhibition, 2021
Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show Purchase Prize – 2020
Clason-Harvie Bursary – 2020
Astaire Art Prize 2020 - Shortlisted Artist
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
In Conversation: Tayo Adekunle and Arike Oke, Workplace Foundation, 2022
Re-Using Archives, Embassy Gallery, 2021
Glasgow Zine Library, 2020
BBC Loop Shorts: Rediscovering my Black Body through Photography
Guts UK, London
Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh
The Brass Monkey, Edinburgh
Reclamation of the Exposition #03, Artefact #03 and Degree Show Proposal, The University of Edinburgh Art Collection, Edinburgh, 2020
ECA Micro-Residency, Hospitalfield, Arbroath, Dundee