Ayọ̀ Akínwándé is an artist, curator, thinker and writer working across lens-based media, installation, sound, and performance.
With an academic background in architecture, his practice is multi-disciplinary. He explores power dynamics — the relationship between the "powerful" and the "powerless" — as it manifests in the multi-faceted layers of the human reality.
He is interested in the flow of information in global democratic discourses, and how it reflects existing power structures. His ongoing project "Archiving the Future," a long-term research work, involves collecting and archiving social media screenshots and sound recordings of conversations at bus stops in the city of Lagos. His long-term exhibition series "Power Show" creates visual monologues and dialogues on socio-political realities in his society, incorporating architectural processes in the spatial detailing and sectioning of his ideas, to evoke both intimacy and monumentality.
Akínwándé co-curated the inaugural Lagos Biennial in 2017, and was also a participating artist at the exhibition held at the Nigerian Railway Museum. He was selected for the 2nd Changjiang International Photography and Video Biennial, and was part of the "Chinafrika — Under Construction" exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Leipzig. In 2019, he presented solo exhibitions in Nigeria, Scotland, and Cuba for the 13th Bienal de La Habana.
He is a contributor to the book Asiko: On the Future of Artistic and Curatorial Pedagogies in Africa, published by the Centre for Contemporary Art Lagos. His work and writing have been featured in Art Africa, Dienacht Magazine, Omenka Online, PoetsArtists, Contemporary&, The Sole Adventurer, Somethingweafricansgot, People's Stories Project, Art Momentum, and other journals and publications around the world.
Akínwándé is a recipient of the 2021 Prince Claus Seed Award, and the 2020 Edith-Russ-Haus Media Art Award — a solo exhibition of the resulting work was presented at Oldenburg's Pulverturm in September 2022. He was awarded the 2019 Place Publique prize by the Fonderie Darling in Montreal. In 2018, he was a finalist for the ArtX Prize and the ABSA L'Atelier Art Competition, with his work included in the exhibition at the ABSA Gallery. He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions around the world.
Akínwándé lives and works between the UK and Nigeria.