By Adefoyeke Ajao

Ayobola Kekere-Ekun is a mixed media artist who gives the traditional craft of quilling a
contemporary twist. Her intricate designs are largely handcrafted and involve a painstaking technique that creatively arrays fabric, ribbons, strips of paper and other media into ornate works of art. Irrespective of her expertise at quilling, Kekere-Ekun is equally at ease using digital technology to produce elaborate artworks.

Born in 1993, Kekere-Ekun holds both B.A. and M.A. degrees in Visual Arts from the University of Lagos, where she currently works as a lecturer. Her talent and dedication to her craft have attracted some accolades: In 2012, she won first prize in the United States Consulate General ‘Women’s History Month’ Art Contest before going on to receive University of Lagos’ Convocation Prize (2014) and the Rele Art Foundation “Young Contemporaries” Grant (2016).

Kekere-Ekun’s inspiration stems from personal experiences and observations. Her characters are dainty, even when she’s examining topical issues such as power relations, mythology and gender, or confronting repressive cultural norms. In “Cultural Dysmorphia”, her collection of paintings which debuted at the Ake Art and Book Festival in 2016, she uses females swathed in colourful Ankara fabrics to illustrate culture’s overbearing influence on individual beliefs. In most of the collection’s individual pieces, the characters can be seen peeping from underneath the fabrics, implying that their individualities are concealed (and probably subdued) by the dominant social norms that they have to conform to. All they can do is look on while allowing these unchallenged beliefs to define them.

Kekere-Ekun has an impressive way of blending colours and forms into ethereal masterpieces. Although she describes herself as an “ironically impatient artist”, her creations are a testament to meticulousness.

To see more of Ayobola Kekere-Ekun’s work visit her Art635 profile as well as her
Instagram handle, @ayobola.k