Artist Statement
My experiences of diverse cultures have not only made me the individual I am, but have also provided rich subject matter upon which I formulate my studio practice. I grew up in a Nigeria acculturated to and independent from Britain and immigrated to the United States as an adult. In creating my artwork I explore my internal tension between my deep love for Nigeria and my strong appreciation for Western culture by amalgamating different media, modes of representation, and images. I extrapolate from my training in Western painting to invent a new visual language that represents my experience as a cosmopolitan Nigerian in much the same way that authors of African and Caribbean diasporic literature use an invented variant of English to tell their stories. This visual language allows me to make images that suggest narratives with universal allegorical interpretations.
I make graphic images that at first glance, take the form of traditional Western paintings; however, upon closer inspection, nuances in my mode of representation emerge which connote the multi-layered nature of my cultural experience as well as its complications. My Western art education heavily influences the way I compose my pictures, but I expand upon this tradition to speak to an alternate life story while still evoking Western painting. I interweave collaged and transferred images of contemporary Nigeria into painted drawings of domestic life with my white American husband; these overlaid textural images create a metaphor for the harmony and friction that I experience as an American citizen who is still a proud Nigerian. I reinforce this metaphor of cultural integration by formally juxtaposing disparate elements such as flat versus illusionistic spaces; simple versus elaborate areas; interiors versus exteriors; and Nigerian versus Western fashions, hairstyles, architectures, etc. In parts of my work, I allow different objects to flow together without delineation so that the viewer can consecutively gaze at diverse images of Nigeria and images of my American apartment without interruption. This visual traversal between worlds is fluid yet jolting, just like the lives of many young cosmopolitan Africans (and immigrants of all nationalities).
I use domestic images of myself and/or my husband to allegorically enact cultural contact. I create these images by layering disparate materials and images into one cohesive representational scene and by exploring characters that experience emigrant life outside Nigeria or else grapple with cosmopolitan life in large Nigerian cities. Thus, my process of mixing media metaphorically restates the central theme of cultural syncretism in my work. This theme is nearly universally familiar because, in our globalized world, more and more people are experiencing similar spaces where multiple cultures interact, be it in a post-colonial, immigrant, or other scenario.
EDUCATION
2011
MFA, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT
2006
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2004
BA (Honors), Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2013
Bronx Calling, The Second Bronx Biennial, Bronx Museum, NY (forthcoming)
Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts, American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY (forthcoming)
New Works, Two Person Show with Abigail DeVille, Gallery Zidoun, Luxembourg (forthcoming)
2012
Primary Sources, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Retrospective of S –, curated by Sam Messer and Jonathan Safran Foer, Fredericks and Freiser gallery, New York, NY
Waiting For The Queen, Diker Gallery, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY
LOST and FOUND: Belief and Doubt in Contemporary Pictures, Museum of New Art, Detroit, MI
Group Show, Clifford Chance US LLP, New York, NY
Configured, curated by Teka Selman, Benrimon Contemporary, New York, NY
2011
The Bearden Project, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Collage Perspectives, Swarthmore College List Gallery, Swarthmore, PA
Four Artists, Fredericks and Freiser gallery, New York, NY
Paperwork, curated by Nina Chanel Abney, Kravets/Wehby gallery, New York, NY
Yale MFA Thesis Show, Green Gallery, New Haven, CT
CAA New York Area MFA Exhibition, Hunter College Times Square Gallery, New York, NY
2010
Yale University class of 2011 show, Green Gallery, New Haven, CT
Uncommon Commencement, Heather James Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2009
Yale University 1st Year Graduate Show, Green Gallery, New Haven, CT
Contemporary Voices: 69th Annual Juried Exhibition, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Annual Student Exhibition, Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building PAFA, Philadelphia, PA
RESIDENCIES
2013
International Studio and Curatorial Program, sponsored by the Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund of the New York Community Trust
Bronx Museum Artist in the Marketplace program
2012
Acadia Summer Arts Program, Acadia, ME
2011
Artist-In-Residence, Studio Museum in Harlem
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2011
Carol Schlosberg Memorial Prize for Excellence in Painting, Yale University
2010
Gamblin Painting Prize, Yale University
2009
The Coverley-Smith Prize, Woodmere Art Museum
2008
Frank C. Wright Jr. Scholarship, American Artists Professional League NY
Fellowship Juried Prize, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
2003
Jonathan Altman Art Grant, Swarthmore College
2002
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2012
Davies, Catriona, “Artist Joins Nigeria’s ‘Cultural Explosion,’” CNN, Inside Africa, October 23, 2012
Ossei-Mensah, Larry, “Collage Graduate,” Arise Magazine, Issue 17
“The Bearden Project,” The Studio Museum in Harlem
Fialho, Alex, “‘Primary Sources’ at the Studio Museum in Harlem,” Art Fag City, October 17, 2012
Cotter, Holland, “Primary Sources,” The New York Times, July 20, 2012
Elliott, Bobby, “Primary Sources, The Studio Museum’s Annual Artists in Residence Exhibition,” Huffington Post, June 17, 2012
Mokgosi, Meleko and Simmons, Xaviera, “In the Studio with the 2011-12 Artists in Residence,” Studio Magazine, Summer/Fall 2012
Sutton, Benjamin and Fine, Bill, “Tilton Gallery Sells Out Art Basel Booth of Njideka Akunyili Collages in Half an Hour,” Artinfo, June 18, 2012
Copley, Caroline, “Art Basel Tests Buyers’ Instincts in Time of Crisis,” Reuters, June 13, 2012
Jovanovic, Rozalia, “Jonathan Safran Foer Co-Curates Retrospective Exhibition of Fictional Painter,” Gallerist NY, June 13, 2012
Darke, Colin, “Found: Compelling New Art Center in Detroit (Introduction to Passenger),” Huffington Post, April 30, 2012
2011
Smith, Paul, “Uptown Celebrates 100 Years of Bearden, Harlem’s True Renaissance Man,” The Uptowner, December 15, 2011
Cotter, Holland, “A Griot for a Global Village,” The New York Times, December 8, 2011
Elliott, Bobby, “The Bearden Project: A Family Affair,” Huffington Post, December 7, 2011
Newhall, Edith, “Painterly Collages,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 27, 2011
_ _ _. “MFA Annual 2011,” New American Paintings, April/May, 2011
Zevitas, Steven, “Tomorrow’s Art Stars Today: New American Paintings Presents the MFA Annual,” Huffington Post, April 18, 2011
2010
McComic, Katherine, “The Study of Art,” Yale Daily News, October 12, 2010
2008
Tammaro, Tina, “Turning Students into Artists at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,” American Artist Drawing, Spring 2008
TEACHING
2012
Visiting Instructor of Painting, “Senior Thesis,” Maryland Institute College of Art
2011
Visiting Assistant Professor of Studio Art, “Life Drawing,” Swarthmore College
Teaching Assistant to Robert Reed, “Introductory Painting,” Yale University School of Art
2010
Teaching Assistant to Robert Reed, “Basic Drawing,” Yale University School of Art
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Yale University Art Gallery
The Rubell Family Collection
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Studio Museum in Harlem