The paintings of Njideka Akunyili Crosby reflect her experience as a member of the contemporary Nigerian diaspora, depicting a specific cultural and national identity that is unfamiliar to many, though instantly recognisable to those who have followed a similar path. Having emigrated to study in the United States as a teenager, Akunyili Crosby moves confidently (although perhaps not without internalised friction) between diverse aesthetic, intellectual, economic and political contexts, and it is the collision and misalignment of these contexts that gives her paintings their tension and poignancy.
The artist paints portraits and domestic interiors that usually feature herself and her family. These scenes are at once flat and limitlessly deep, with windows and doorways opening onto other spaces, while the spaces described in these pictures are indeterminate; certain details – such as a cast iron radiator, for instance – indicate a cold climate (such as New York, where the artist lived for a time), while others, such as a paraffin lamp set on a table, are drawn from Akunyili Crosby’s memories of Nigeria.
