NJIDEKA AKUNYILI CROSBY
b. 1983, NigeriaNjideka Akunyili Crosby’s layered, figurative pieces accentuate the intimacy in the everyday; her figures, collages and memories create complex yet accessible artworks that not only reflect her lived experience but also counteract generalisations about being a member of the Nigerian diaspora.
Early Years
Njideka Akunyili Crosby was born in 1983 in Enugu, Nigeria. She has talked about developing her creativity at a young age, making toys out of matchboxes and ping-pong balls. She first became aware of the idea of portraiture through family photographs taken in honour of significant events (weddings, first communion, birthdays etc) and how these were assembled in terms of clothing, setting, poses and additional details. Aged 16, she moved to the United States when her family applied for the Green Card lottery, and her hybrid cultural identity is reflected in her work. She gained a double major (biology and studio art) from Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, following that with a post-baccalaureate certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2006. She received her MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2011 and an honorary doctorate from Swarthmore College in 2019.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby: Artworks
Precise and detailed, Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s artworks encapsulate the intricacies of modern life. Everyday scenes—eating, watching TV—are viewers’ invitation into a world where figures adopt expressions that offer a variety of interpretations. A closer look at Akunyili Crosby’s pieces reveals photo-collage created from found images and the artist’s own collection, including pictures of family and friends to advertisements, military figures and celebrities. These layered images evoke ideas of the cultural references and personal memories that inform Akunyili Crosby’s artistic practice, which co-exist with the disciplines she has learned during her university studies. On her website, she says: “In much the same way that inhabitants of formerly colonised countries select and invent from cultural features transmitted to them by the dominant or metropolitan colonisers, I extrapolate from my training in Western painting to invent a new visual language that represents my experience—which at times feels paradoxically fractured and whole—as a cosmopolitan Nigerian.”
- Strong Black family bonds and intergenerational connection are key themes in Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s artworks. The Beautyful Ones Series (2010s–) are paintings produced from photographs featuring figures presented in a portrait style. For example, The Beautyful Ones Series #4 (2015) is based on her sister’s first communion.
- 2013’s And We Begin to Let Go focuses on a young Black woman sitting in an armchair; behind her, a male figure with an ambiguous skin tone bends so his head is adjacent to her ear—is he whispering to her or kissing her? Her expression offers viewers many interpretations: she could be equally sensual or resentful. characterise many of the remaining areas of the image: palm trees on the walls, collage on the chairs. male figure is white.
- In 2021, a year after Breonna Taylor’s killing, Njideka Akunyili Crosby painted Breonna Taylor: Vital, Dreaming, filling her mixed-media (acrylic, pastel, charcoal, photo transfer) artwork with details about the paramedic, who was shot by US police in Louisville, Kentucky. These details include a necklace inherited from Taylor’s grandmother and a hand-crocheted toy. Akunyili Crosby worked with Taylor’s family and friends, who shared their photos and memories.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby: Select Awards
- MacArthur Fellowship (2017)
- African Art Award, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (2019)
- Carnegie “Great Immigrant, Great American” Award (2020)
- United States Artists Fellowship (2021)
- Honorary Doctorate of Art, Otis College of Art (2024)
Njideka Akunyili Crosby: Select Public Commissions
- Remain, Thriving, commissioned for Brixton Tube Station, London (2018) (now at Tate Modern)
- Dwellers: Native One, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco (2022)
- The Beautyful Ones (Series #1c), Kingsessing, Philadelphia (also known as “Africatown) (2025)
Njideka Akunyili Crosby: Select Exhibitions
Select Solo Exhibitions
- Coming Back to See Through, Again, David Zwirner, New York City and Los Angeles (2023)
- Contemporary Project: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin (2022)
- The Hilton Als Series: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven (2022)
- Njideka Akunyili Crosby: “The Beautyful Ones”, Victoria Miro Venice (2019)
- Njideka Akunyili Crosby: “The Beautyful Ones”, National Portrait Gallery, London (2018)
- Focus: Njideka Akunyili Crosby I Counterparts, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas (2018)
- Front Room: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore (2017)
- Njideka Akunyili Crosby: Predecessors, Contemporary Arts Centre, Cincinnati (2017)
- Njideka Akunyili Crosby: Portals, Victoria Miro, London (2016)
- Njideka Akunyili Crosby: I Refuse to be Invisible, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach (2016)
- Hammer Projects: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2015)
- I Always Face You, Even When it Seems Otherwise (Two-Person Show with Simone Leigh), Tiwani Contemporary, London (2013)
- Domestic Experiences, Foreign Interiors (Two-Person Show with Doron Langberg), Sensei Exchange, New York City
- I Still Face You, Franklin Art Works, Minneapolis (2013)
- Primary Sources, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City (2012)
Select Group Exhibitions
- The Way We Live Now, George Economou Collection, Athens (2026)
- Victoria Miro: 40 Years, Victoria Miro, London (2025)
- Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination, MoMA, New York City (2025)
- Pop Forever, Tom Wesselmann &..., Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2024)
- When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, Kunstmuseum Basel (2024)
- Soulscapes, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London (2024)
- Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American College, Frist Art Museum, Nashville (2023)
- Dreamhome: Stories of Art and Shelter, Sydney Modern (2022) A Cool Million, Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), San Francisco (2022)
- Taking Space: Contemporary Women Artists and the Politics of Scale, PAFA, Philadelphia (2022)
- Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Art, London (2020)
- Michael Jackson: On The Wall, Espoo Museum of Art, Helsinki (2019)
- 58th Venice Biennale: May You Live In Interesting Times (2019), Venice
Further Reading
- Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s official website
- Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s Instagram
- 2020 Conversation with The Brooklyn Rail
- “Meet the artist” at the National Portrait Gallery (2024)
Njideka Akunyili Crosby FAQs
When did Njideka Akunyili Crosby paint Barack and Michelle Obama?
Njideka Akunyili Crosby painted the former US president and first lady in June 2026. The large-scale portrait, titled _The Obamas: Springing Forth, 2026_, was created from a photograph Akunyili Crosby took of the couple, using her familiar photo-transfer technique to include images from the Obamas’ lives. It is on display in the Hope and Change lobby at the Barack Obama Presidential Centre in Chicago.
What are Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s influences?
Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s Nigerian childhood is a clear inspiration for her work, but the ways this intersects with her life in America are also apparent. At Yale, she took an African and Caribbean diaspora literature class, which she has said was “a game-changer for my practice and my work, and the way I was able to talk about and think about what I was trying to do”. Her training in Western art history (notably portraiture) provides additional reference points, notably echoes of Édouard Vuillard’s patterns. In terms of contemporary artists, she has spoken about her admiration for Kerry James Marshall and how he “deftly moves across genres”.
How does Njideka Akunyili Crosby use photo transfer in her work?
Njideka Akunyili Crosby adds small photographic images to her pictures using acetone transfer (usually before any other media). She laser-prints each image, places it face down on her surface and then rubs the back of the print with a brush dipped in acetone. She has said that these transfers give her works “historical, cultural, political and familial content” and reference not only US-based pop culture but also the British presence in Nigeria.
What is the significance of plants in Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s image-making?
Plants are a symbol for migration in Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s artistic practice. Not only have plants dispersed around the world but they are categorised using similar language to human citizens (naturalised, native etc).
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