Born in Yorkshire, Tayo Adekunle (b.1997) is a British Nigerian photographer and visual artist based in London. Their practice explores issues surrounding race, gender and sexuality as well as racial and colonial history, predominantly through portraiture and self-portraiture. Decolonising and reworking historical tropes relating to black people is central to their work. Tayo subverts established notions about the sexuality of black women and the standard of beauty ascribed to black women, taking from contexts that include artist historical painting, sculptures and 19th century colonial photography. In their practice, Adekunle reaches into the past to reflect on the present, drawing parallels between the treatment of black people in the past and their treatment in the present day. As their practice develops, it has grown to include prop making, textiles and other forms of printmaking such as Toyobo.
BA (Hons) Photography, Edinburgh College of Art, 2016- 2020
2024 - Stories of the Unseen, Edinburgh Printmakers
2023 - Tayo Adekunle, The Scottish Arts Society
2022 - Tales from an Absent Truth, Studio Chapple
2021 - Tayo Adekunle, Workplace Foundation
2025 - The Journey: From Then til Now, Imago Lisboa Photo Festival
Invisible Race, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki
2024 - New Contemporaries, Studies in Photography, Edinburgh
2023 - Reframe: The Residency Exhibition, Southbank Centre, London
Reclamation - Otherlandz, London Art Fair, London
2022 - Companion, Workplace Foundation, Newcastle
StART MMG Emerging Artist Prize, Saatchi Gallery, London
Un/Sense, Christie's, London
Otherlandz, London
Queer/in/g Nature, Ledward Centre, Brighton
Mis(sing) Information, Perth Museum and Gallery, Perth
Hysterical, no format Gallery, London
RSA New Contemporaries 2022, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2021 – SSA 123rd Annual Exhibition, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
Touch: The Politics of Physicality - ACall Festival, Hackney Downs Studios, London
Mindshift Exhibition, The University of Edinburgh, Online
2020 – Futureproof 2020, Street Level Photoworks, Online
COUP DE FOUDRE, Insurgency Gallery and Five Years
THIS IS TOMORROW CALLING (Wishing you were here), Alt_D at Zembla Gallery, Edinburgh
A Quest That’s Just Begun, Wooosh Gallery with Generator Projects, Dundee
Alt_D Alternative Graduate Showcase (Online)
Buffering… Final Year Exhibition, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh
2019 - She__. Exhibition, Whitespace Gallery, Edinburgh
Butter On Bacon, Hospitalfield, Arbroath
2018 - Material Dialogues, Fire Station, Edinburgh
2017 - ECA End of Year Exhibition, DOK Space, Edinburgh
Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh 2024
Reframe, Southbank Centre, London, 2023
Stately Homes Project, Leeds Playhouse, Leeds, 2022 - 2023
ECA Micro-Residency, Hospitalfield, Arbroath, Dundee
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
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
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
Reclamation of the Exposition #03, Artefact #03 and Degree Show Proposal, The University of Edinburgh Art Collection, Edinburgh, 2020