Aisha Seriki was born in Nigeria in 1998. At the age of 8 her family immigrated from South East Asia to London, England, where she initially studied Global Liberal Arts at SOAS (School of African and Oriental Studies), University of London from 2017–20, prior to pursuing her MA in photography at the Royal College of Art. She specialises in fashion and portrait photography, exploring themes of justice, belonging, blackness, gender and migration.
Photographer Aisha Seriki was born in Nigeria in 1998. When she was 8, her family moved from Southeast Asia to London, England, where they faced UK border discrimination. This ongoing struggle — her father is still being denied entry to the UK — made Seriki acutely aware of her identity as a Black Nigerian female immigrant from a young age, influencing both her perspective on life and her art. While at school, she developed an interest in the arts; however, her teachers did not encourage her to follow this path. Her perspective changed after participating in a youth programme at the Photographers Gallery in London, where she recognised the possibility of making a career in photography. Additionally, her father's strong interest in photography, demonstrated by his documentation of all the significant events in her childhood, further inspired her. While engaging with fashion and portrait photography, Seriki completed a undergraduate degree in Global Liberal Arts at the School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS), University of London from 2017–2020, prior to studying for an MA in photography at the Royal College of Art.
Seriki's work is guided by both her personal experiences and her creative imagination. She addresses themes of justice, belonging, and nuanced perspectives on blackness, gender, and migration. Her aim is to explore the diverse possibilities of identity and her approach is deeply influenced by the writings of Black activists such as Steve Biko, Franz Fanon, and Ngugi wa Thiong'o. Concerned with the skewed portrayals of Black women in both art and media, Seriki’s work explores racist stereotypes. During a visit to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, she became aware of a lack of diversity in the art on display. This observation inspired her to launch her first major initiative to support the POC art community. In 2019, she created the photo series Heaven is Not Closed for Yellow X Brooklyn Brothers Night School, focusing on the unequal cultural representation in art circles worldwide. Concurrently, she wanted ‘to create a project to empower black women and my younger self’ (cited in Khan 2023). In this series, she re-envisioned artworks from the Uffizi, creating empowering images of Black women. Dismantling the colonial narrative that dominates mainstream representations of Blackness, she provided a more subtle understanding of Black identity. For this series, she drew her visual cues from American-Cuban painter Harmonia Rosales, who is celebrated for reinterpreting classical art to feature Black femininity. Exploring further representations of Black women who defied conventional standards, Seriki also created a body of work inspired by the early 20th century Black entertainer and French resistance agent, Josephine Baker (1906-75). Drawing inspiration from Baker's infamous 1927 Banana dance in Paris, which challenged Western views of Black femininity, Seriki's portraits examined the politics of beauty, which she believes are intrinsically tied to colonialism and Eurocentric beauty norms. The series featured in the 2022 exhibition Art as Expression: Emerging Black Artists at Acrylicize, London, which displayed a range of media — photography, sculpture, short film, painting, and illustration — from new creatives entering the London art scene that year. The previous year, Seriki was shortlisted for the prestigious Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Seriki’s photo project A Light at the End of the Tunnel examined the impact of migration on traditional and societal views of love, focusing specifically on how family relationships are constrained by arbitrary borders. The series included a family portrait featuring relatives who could not be in the UK. Inspired by Seriki’s own experiences of separation, the works highlighted the emotional toll of immigration, an aspect frequently overlooked in migration discourse. The series was displayed in the exhibition Becoming British, curated by Bulgarian-born artist Lora Krastieva at Bloc Projects Sheffield (2022). Showcasing work by Kristeva, Chris Cambell and Nicole Raymond, the show raised questions about nationality, nation-building, and identity, highlighting the diversity within Britishness while challenging preconceptions related to race, migration, and nationality.
In 2022, Seriki collaborated with diaspora artist Latoya Okuneye for a joint exhibition at 30 Fenchurch Street, London. Both artists showcased works that reflected their personal experiences as people of colour in contemporary London. The following year, Seriki's 2023 project, Ori Inu, explored ideas of spirituality, drawing from the Yoruba metaphysical concept of Ori, which translates to 'the head', investigating universal truths and emphasising the importance of self-connection and self-love. One aspect of the project explored cyclical time and transformation, while another was inspired by the Greek myth of Narcissus. Seriki was intrigued by how Narcissus transformed from being self-obsessed to becoming a beautiful flower and wanted to investigate self-obsession from this unique perspective. Hence, a number of photographs in the series feature a male figure gazing into water, not only recalling the myth and the central theme of Ori Inu but also highlighting the multifaceted nature of self. Seriki is Develop Ambassador at the Photographers’ Gallery, London. Her work is not currently represented in UK public collections.
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