Hello WORriors, it’s #WomanCrushWednessday, and our Woman Crush is Njideka Crosby Akunyili!
Born in Enugu, Nigeria, Akunyili Crosby is a visual artist based in Los Angeles, California. She was just 10 years old, when she moved to, Lagos, to attend one of the country’s most prestigious boarding schools, Queens College. With this, her first taste of a multicultural – the Nigerian, British, and American popular culture was born, which contributed to the similarities between her work and the work of pop-culture artists.
It is interesting to note that she is the daughter of the late Dora Akunyili who was the Director-General of the National Agency For Food and Drug Administration and Control of Nigeria (NAFDAC). Even with a well known mother in Nigeria, Akunyili Crosby has made a name for herself by clearly taking her part in the artistic world. She has won multiple award an today, her name is known not only in Nigeria, but in the United States and other parts of the world as well.
A portrait above of Ms. Akunyili Crosby with layered images, made in collaboration with the artist. Photo: Photo And Illustration: Maxine Helfman For The Wall Street Journal.
She adds photo transfers and fabrics to bring in different aspects such as hair styles, fashions, architecture, and furnishings from the two cultures.
Akunyili Crosby studied biology and art at Swarthmore College, where she met her husband and fellow artist Justin Crosby. She pursued her MFA at Yale, which is when her artistic breakthrough occurred.
She adds colourful paint, fabrics, acrylic, photos, cut-outs from Nollywood films, advertisements, and Nigerian fashion magazines, to create vibrant paintings and collages that dance across the borders of her different identities. She is influenced by writer Chinua Achebe who brings the English language to fit his culture. In an interview with W Magazine, Akunyili Crosby explained that she uses an approach similar to Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, who sometimes portrays characters speaking in their own dialects, which remains untranslated, you need to search for its true meaning by yourself, something also similar to what Chimamanda Adichie books does.
In her work, Akunyili Crosby cracks English and uses it to create a transcultural, syncretic space.
We celebrate Njideka Akunyili Crosby.
Ex-First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama paid a visit to Njideka Akunyili Crosby at her studio.
