Àsìkò

Àsìkò {Asiko} is a UK based Nigerian conceptual artist who explores his ideas within the medium of photography, mixed media and film. His work is constructed in the narrative that straddles between fantasy and reality as a response to his experiences of identity, culture and heritage. 

Through the use of constructed storytelling and the application of composition, form and movement - Àsìkòs work allows him to draw the viewer into a conceptual narrative that radiates emotions of strength, vulnerability, defiance and loneliness. 

The stories told through his images are an anthology of his emotional state and its intersection with culture and identity; they are a love letter to the African story - celebrating the beauty of blackness, womanhood and the African way of life. His work is organic, surreal, emotionally layered, all informed within an African cultural aesthetic as well as his connection to the contemporary world he lives in.

Àsìkòs first solo show entitled ‘The Adorned Series’ was shown at Rele gallery in Nigeria in 2016.  A thematic celebration of African heritage; the work explored womanhood and its intersection with culture and adornment through the use of jewellery. His second solo show at the Gallery of African Art in London 2018 entitled ‘Conversations’ explored the space of women in African patriarchy cultural structures through the lens of gender violence. 

Àsìkò work has also been exhibited at the ‘SeeMe takes The Armoury’ in New York, The NOW Gallery and the Old Truman Brewery in London.

‘Layers’, one of Àsìkòs collaborative works, was exhibited at the South Bank in London and featured on the BBC and Huffington Post. The work explored womanhood and ageing in our current cultural climate.

Another of Àsìkò collaborations, a project entitled ‘Looks Like Me’ (Black Panther Portraits) in conjunction with a prominent London talent agency addressed the need for representation and diversity in the media - creating portraits of children to represent the motion picture film posters of the titular characters of 2018 theatrical Marvel release ‘Black Panther’. The images were exhibited at the British Film Institute and The Black Cultural Archives. They were profiled on Britains Channel 4 television, CNN and on Vogue and Essence magazines. They were also celebrated and reposted online by various Hollywood actors and personalities in the entertainment industry, namely Lupita Yongo, Michael B Jordan, Common and Letitia Wright.