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.