Ekua Bayunu

Arts Mentor

About

Ekua Bayunu, born in the UK, an African Englishwoman of Irish and Nigerian descent, travelled with her adoptive parents to the Cook Islands as an infant. Returning to a Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe town on the A6 in the mid-1960s. She arrived in Manchester in the early 1990s with two young children and a raft of community arts experience. Turning 50 in 2011, Ekua refocused her arts practice on her own sculpture, performance and filmmaking. Associate Artist with Chuck Gallery, African Modern and Contemporary Art in 2016. Artist in Residence in Alexandra Park, Manchester in 2018.
She won the Whitworth Art Gallery Older Artist Commission in 2019. And most recently was the first of two Artist in residence in the School of Creativity at WAG, Sept 2021–June 2022. Her work reflects her passion to construct images of humanity embodying the inherent beauty of all people celebrating nation, class, gender, size, sexuality, and disability, stemming from her own life experience. Since 2021 both her politics and artwork have focussed on both social and climate justice. Ekua is also a Green Councillor in Hulme.

ARTS Mentor for:

Irandokht, “Woman. Life. Freedom”