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I.
Presence
Where does love begin? When you receive it or when you give it?
...in the Garden
2026
24x30in
Where’d your love go?
2026
24x30in
Inheritance
2026
24x30in
A good and virtous life
2026
24x30in
Found you...
2026
24x30in
II.
Field Day
Somebody I
2026
24x30in
Somebody II
2026
24x30in
Somebody III
2026
24x30in
Somebody IV
2026
24x30in
III.
MCRBCN
In 2025, Manchester became the first-ever English guest city at Barcelona's iconic La Mercè Festival, Catalonia's biggest cultural festival. MCRBCN is a new design exhibition uniting Manchester and Barcelona's creative communities, this project brings together talent from both cities to explore cultural connections and fresh perspectives through the theme “A love letter to your city”. My entry point to the theme focused on Architecture as it was my way into the city and its history. One illustration reflects the industrial buildings that continue to shape Manchester’s urban character today. The second highlights a personal connection through the former Chorlton Town Hall, where the 1945 Pan-African Congress helped pave the way for African independence.
You can view all the work and more about the exhibition on the website: mcrbcn.com
Mancunia
2025
15x15cm
Chorlton Town Hall
2025
15x15cm
IV.
ÒWE (Bead Posters)
Òwe I
2025
29.7x42cm
Òwe II
2025
29.7x42cm
Òwe III
2025
29.7x42cm
V.
Typographic Creatures
Where does heritage end and accultration begin?
This project reimagines Yoruba folktales and legends with the same reverence illuminated manuscripts brought to Christian scripture, traditions carried into African cultures not just as belief, but as a replacement for the ones already there. Born from the tension that comes with living inside a familiar but different culture, it is an exploration into what gets preserved, what gets displaced, and who decides what's worth venerating. It also revealed a deep visual conversation between the two, in the parallels between their ornamentation and iconography that suggested these worlds had more in common than history had allowed.
Creation Myth
2023
30x30in
Founding of Oyo
2023
30x30in
The Birds and the Magician
2023
30x30in
Opa Oranmiyan
2023
30x30in
Ijapa Tricks the Chicken
2023
30x30in
Orisha Oko
2023
30x30in
VI.
Kiko
This exploration is an attempt to imagine what a written script for the Yoruba language could look like if it was invented in its own cultural context. "Kiko" follows an experimental process focused on simulating the natural evolution of phonetic symbols. The process starts with making marks of objects representing an identical initial sound. This mark is then redrawn hundreds of times, allowing natural mistakes and whim to slowly transform each iteration until we arrive at an entirely new symbol. This process was built on learnings from several Africa histories of writing including the work of the Nigerian artist Victor Ekpuk, which blurs the boundaries between art, language, and culture.
Exhibited as part of Quasi: Experimental Writing Systems at HMCT GalleryArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, CANovember 17, 2023 to April 14, 2024
...in the Garden
2026
24x30in
Zeke OY is a designer and artist interested in the tacit aspects of language, space, and culture. His practice is shaped by a unique outsider-insider experience of the Yoruba cultural canon.
Where does the past end and the future begin?
I don't think there's a clean answer, and the work finds it’s foundations in that uncertainty. In the spaces where the stories handed down to us through histories and traditions converse with the ones we're still inventing.
↑
Where does the past end and the future begin?
I don't think there's a clean answer, and the work finds it’s foundations in that uncertainty. In the spaces where the stories handed down to us through histories and traditions converse with the ones we're still inventing.
I.
Presence
Where does love begin? When you receive it or when you give it?
...in the Garden
2026
24x30in
Where’d your love go?
2026
24x30in
Inheritance
2026
24x30in
A good and virtous life
2026
24x30in
Found you...
2026
24x30in
II.
Field Day
Somebody I
2026
24x30in
Somebody II
2026
24x30in
Somebody III
2026
24x30in
Somebody IV
2026
24x30in
III.
MCRBCN
In 2025, Manchester became the first-ever English guest city at Barcelona's iconic La Mercè Festival, Catalonia's biggest cultural festival. MCRBCN is a new design exhibition uniting Manchester and Barcelona's creative communities, this project brings together talent from both cities to explore cultural connections and fresh perspectives through the theme “A love letter to your city”. My entry point to the theme focused on Architecture as it was my way into the city and its history. One illustration reflects the industrial buildings that continue to shape Manchester’s urban character today. The second highlights a personal connection through the former Chorlton Town Hall, where the 1945 Pan-African Congress helped pave the way for African independence.
You can view all the work and more about the exhibition on the website: mcrbcn.com
Mancunia
2025
15x15cm
Chorlton Town Hall
2025
15x15cm
IV.
ÒWE (Bead Posters)
Òwe I
2025
29.7x42cm
Òwe II
2025
29.7x42cm
Òwe III
2025
29.7x42cm
V.
Typographic Creatures
Where does heritage end and accultration begin?
This project reimagines Yoruba folktales and legends with the same reverence illuminated manuscripts brought to Christian scripture, traditions carried into African cultures not just as belief, but as a replacement for the ones already there. Born from the tension that comes with living inside a familiar but different culture, it is an exploration into what gets preserved, what gets displaced, and who decides what's worth venerating. It also revealed a deep visual conversation between the two, in the parallels between their ornamentation and iconography that suggested these worlds had more in common than history had allowed.
Creation Myth
2023
30x30in
Founding of Oyo
2023
30x30in
The Birds and the Magician
2023
30x30in
Opa Oranmiyan
2023
30x30in
Ijapa Tricks the Chicken
2023
30x30in
Orisha Oko
2023
30x30in
VI.
Kiko
This exploration is an attempt to imagine what a written script for the Yoruba language could look like if it was invented in its own cultural context. "Kiko" follows an experimental process focused on simulating the natural evolution of phonetic symbols. The process starts with making marks of objects representing an identical initial sound. This mark is then redrawn hundreds of times, allowing natural mistakes and whim to slowly transform each iteration until we arrive at an entirely new symbol. This process was built on learnings from several Africa histories of writing including the work of the Nigerian artist Victor Ekpuk, which blurs the boundaries between art, language, and culture.
Exhibited as part of Quasi: Experimental Writing Systems at HMCT GalleryArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, CANovember 17, 2023 to April 14, 2024
Kiko Process
2023