Evan Ifekoya is an interdisciplinary artist working in community organising, installation, performance, sound, text and video, whose practice is an extension of their calling as a spiritual practitioner. They view art as a site where resources can be both redistributed and renegotiated, whilst challenging the implicit rules and hierarchies of public and social space. Through archival and sonic investigations, they speculate on blackness in abundance. Strategies of space holding through architectural interventions, ritual, sonic installations and workshops enable them to make a practice of living in order not to turn to despair.
They established the collectively run and QTIBPOC (queer, trans, intersex, black and people of colour) led Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.) in 2018. They were awarded the Paul Hamlyn bursary in 2021, the Kleinwort Hambros Emerging Artists Prize in 2019 and the Arts Foundation Award for Live Art sponsored by the Yoma Sasberg Estate in 2017.*
They have presented exhibitions, moving image and performances across UK, Europe and Internationally, most recently: ‘Stranieri Ovunque –Foreigners Everywhere’ 60th Venice Biennial, ‘The Ocean in the Forest’ Wanås Konst Sculpture Park Sweden, ‘Traces of Ecstasy’ ICA VCU Richmond Virginia and Lagos Biennial (2024), ARoS Denmark and Guest Artist Space Lagos (2023), ‘~Resonant Frequencies’, Migros Museum, Zurich and a moving image commission with LUX in collaboration with University of Reading (2022); Herbert Art Gallery and Museum as nominees of the Turner Prize (with B.O.S.S. 2021).
Their works are held in a number of public collections including Arts Council England, Walker Art Gallery Liverpool and Migros Museum Zurich.