Tayo Adekunle is a Nigerian-British photographer and visual artist from West Yorkshire, based in London. They received their BA(Hons) in Photography at Edinburgh College of Art in 2020. Since then they have been an artist in residence at institutions around the UK including the Southbank Centre in London, Leeds Playhouse in Leeds, Hospitalfield in Arbroath and Edinburgh Printmakers in Edinburgh. Recent exhibitions include Fronteiras do Invisível, Galeria da Estação, Braga; The Journey From Then Til Now, Imago Lisboa Photo Festival, Lisbon; The Invisible Race, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki and Stories of the Unseen, Edinburgh Printmakers (solo).
Using predominantly portraiture and self-portraiture, Tayo’s work explores issues surrounding race, gender and sexuality. In an interrogation of racial and colonial history, their work is centred around reworking tropes and narratives about black people and black culture. They use their work to question the stories that have been historically positioned as truth, and to understand the perceptions we carry today. In reference to the stigmatisation of the Orisha Éṣù and of Yoruba Spiritual Tradition as a whole, their works explore the power stories hold in cultural preservation through visualising Éṣù’s intricacies as a guardian and as a healer. Tayo uses the repetitive misrepresentation of Éṣù to address the power of cultural memory and the importance of reconsidering dominant narratives.
After graduating, Tayo exhibited at the RSA as part of the RSA New Contemporaries in 2022. The exhibition was one of their first in person shows following graduation and the covid pandemic and it gave them the opportunity to see certain pieces in person for the first time. They presented their work alongside other graduates from Scottish institutions, and the show provided them the chance to celebrate together. The same year, Tayo was awarded the SSA Award and the Scottish Arts Club Award which gave them the opportunity to have their first solo exhibition in Scotland in 2023. Since then, they have continued to grow their practice beyond the medium of photography and have had the opportunity to work with institutions around the UK and Europe.
