Nigerian artist Ayobola Kekere-Ekun uses a technique known as paper quilling. She rolls and glues together colored paper, ribbons and strips of canvas to create her work. She and I, the Protectors.
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun
Her work primarily concerns and depicts Black, female identity. "You can't separate the two, at least not for me," she said. "I've always thought that no matter where I end up living, or what I end up doing, it's the origin point for me." She and I. The Secret Keepers.
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun
With a distinctive and colorful style, Kekere-Ekun likes to create "visual excess" to examine Nigeria's identity. "Our people tend to be very bright, very helpful and very expressive," she said. Memory Bank Error I.
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun
One motif that recurs in her work is the cyclops -- the one-eyed creature of Greek mythology. "The cyclops for me is just an extension of how I like to mess with the eyes in my work," she said. After School Portrait.
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun
Kekere-Ekun believes ancient mythology can be instructive for us today. "I think there's a lot to learn, literally, and metaphorically, from how people were just trying to make sense of the world and their place in it," she said. Are you with me. To the death.
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun
Motherhood is also a central part of Kekere-Ekun's work, with much of her work based on her relationship with her own mother. Gbórí dúró (Keep your head still).
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun
"I kind of cling to this almost childlike perspective in my work because it feels safer," explained Kekere-Ekun. Gbórí dúró (Keep your head still II).
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun
Her work often emphasizes the importance of mental health, a topic that Kekere-Ekun says has a stigma attached to it in Nigeria. "When you're in a space where the bulk of the population is just in survival mode, worrying about something as intangible as mental health, it just seems like a luxury, and it really shouldn't be." Happy Survival Day.
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun
Although quilling can be viewed as a craft, Kekere-Ekun doesn't approach it that way. "I treat it no differently than if I was sculpting or making an installation," she said. "It's just another way to tell the story." Memory Bank Error II.
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun
Kekere-Ekun has upcoming exhibitions in Los Angeles and Johannesburg. Memory Bank Error VI
CNN  — 

Eyes are often said to be windows to the soul. For Nigerian artist Ayobola Kekere-Ekun, eyes are a way of revealing the truth of someone’s character. “You can tell a lot from a person’s eyes. The eyes offer a mutual vulnerability,” she said.

Her work has been seen in exhibitions from Lagos to Los Angeles and has even attracted the attention of Alicia Keys and her husband, who gave Kekere-Ekun and others a $5,000 grant as part of an initiative to support artists.

Mixing childlike, colorful imagery with themes like sexism and Black identity, Kekere-Ekun’s art is not created using paint on canvas or a hammer and chisel, but rather through rolling and shaping paper in a process known as “quilling.”

Quilling – sometimes known as paper filigree – dates back hundreds of years, and was practiced by European nuns as far back as the 16th century, according to the non-profit Quilling Guild, but Kekere-Ekun stumbled upon the technique by accident. One day, whilst walking home, she was given a flyer and began to play with it.

“I had just found a way to paint without painting,” she recalled. “So I went right back out, and I bought a bunch of paper. Then I cut them up and I just kept rolling them and gluing them to a board just to see what happened. It became a really intense, passionate affair that just morphed into something loving and stable.”

Ayobola Kekere-Ekun
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun's "Memory Bank Error I."

The work can be difficult to define – is it a craft or an art? “It’s something a suburban mum in Arkansas would use to make cards,” Kekere-Ekun explained. “But I don’t treat it like a craft. I treat it no differently than if I was sculpting or making an installation. It’s just another way to tell the story.”

Dennis Osadebe: Meet the Nigerian artist visualizing Africa's future by reaching into the past

Creating an artwork this way can take her anywhere from two weeks to seven months, depending on the size and scope of the piece. The process usually starts with a sketch, before eventually becoming a “skeleton” of its future incarnation. Then Kekere-Ekun will quill piece by piece using colored paper, ribbons and parts of canvases before it’s eventually completed. “I find a good way to describe it is that I’m building a jigsaw puzzle, but I can see where it ends,” she explained. “I just call it lines on steroids.”

“I feel like men take up enough space in the world”

Kekere-Ekun was born and raised in Lagos but is currently based in Johannesburg. Her father worked as a surgeon in Saudi Arabia, whilst her mother gave up her job as a hospital administrator to care for her and her siblings.

Art was a fascination from a young age, but not a passion that would inspire a career. At first, architecture seemed like the more stable path for Kekere-Ekun, following in her great-uncle’s footsteps. However, the mathematical aspects drove her away and the pursuit of art took hold.

Ayobola Kekere-Ekun
The cyclops -- the one-eyed creature of Greek mythology -- is a recurring motif in Kekere-Ekun's work.

Exploring femininity, her work primarily deals with Black women. “I feel like men take up enough space in the world,” she explained. “I don’t feel like they need to take up enough space in my head as well.”

Kekere-Ekun hopes her work can go beyond preconceptions of Nigerian art. “There used to be this very stereotypical perception of what Nigerian arts could look like. If it was more abstract, they would be some masks. If it was more figurative, there would be a market scene, or a lady fetching water. Now, there’s a lot more nuance.”

For Kekere-Ekun, therapy has also been important to how her work has evolved. Originally, her art dealt more with social and political issues that frustrated her, but therapy allowed her to express herself more. “I think I was drowning because I’ve spent my entire life internalizing everything that has ever happened to me,” she said. “I think therapy 100% saved my life.”

Kekere-Ekun is currently finishing her PhD in art and design at the University of Johannesburg. Academia has left it difficult for her to pursue her passion full-time, but she believes that all artists should stay true to themselves.

“There are few things as glaring as dishonest work. If you don’t value your point of view, no one else will,” she said. “There’s something very humbling or rewarding in people whom I’ve never met, finding a connection with what I have to say.”