Jake Aikman

Jake Aikman was born in London in 1978 and currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. He obtained his Masters of Fine Arts (specialising in painting) in 2008 from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, after completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2005. Aikman had his first solo exhibition, “This Must Be The Place”, in 2006 at Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town.  Since then, he has presented six solo exhibitions including Echoes in 2009, Proximity in 2011, and “At the Quiet Limit” in 2013 at SMAC Gallery. His solo exhibition “Confini Velati/Veiled Boundaries” was presented in 2014 in Rome following a residency in Trevignano Romano in Italy, which was facilitated by the Centro Luigi Di Sarro. Aikman presented his sixth solo exhibition Haunt, at SMAC Gallery in Johannesburg, earlier in 2017.

In 2009 Aikman exhibited in “L’Anima Del Acqua: The Spirit of Water” an exhibition presented as part of the 53rd Venice Biennale. He was also an invited artist for the 4th Beijing International Art Biennale and exhibited in “Paralleli”, an official exhibition to the 2nd Sabbionetta Biennale in 2010, and the Olympic Fine Arts exhibition Creative Cities Collection that was held at the Barbican Centre in London in 2012.
Jake Aikman took part in the “ArtUnitedUs” urban art project, where he painted a striking three-story mural on the side of a building in Kiev, Ukraine. The art project collaborates with communities to raise public awareness of issues around war, aggression, and violence. In 2017 was included in SMAC Gallery’s presentation at the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London.


During May 2018 presented “Vestiges”, a solo show at Suburbia Contemporary, Granada, Spain; in 2020 participated at the group exhibition “Surrounding” at Suburbia Contemporary – Satellite, Florence and in 2021 was present at “Urban Environments and Imaginary Spaces” in Suburbia Contemporary, Barcelona. In 2021 he had a solo exhibition “Still the light reaches us” Suburbia Contemporary. His work has been presented at Enter Art Fair Copenhagen, in 2022. At FNB Art Joburg and ICTAF Cape Town Art Fair in 2022 and 2023.