She recalled being an artist wasn't an option when she was growing up because she grew up in a climate where the options seemed to be limited—medicine, engineering, law,”
But when she discovered formal art classes, Akunyili Crosby felt “an urgency,” to break away from the preconceived boundaries of what she should do with her life. After a brief sojourn to her native country, where she served in the National Youth Service Corps for a year, she returned to the U.S. to pursue her goal.
America would quickly become her second home, especially after a college classmate become her spouse. “I still felt connected to Nigeria, but the longer I stayed in America, the longer I felt connected to it,” she says. “When I started dating my husband, I got to a point where I really began to have a dual allegiance between the countries.”
Since graduating with her master’s degree from Yale University’s School of Art in 2011, she has swiftly gained renown in the New York art world for her large-scale yet intimate figurative portraits and still-life works. They show her American husband, her African family members and occasionally the artist herself engaging in everyday domestic moments—eating dinner, reclining in bed, or having a conversation. The works are a lively amalgam of colors, mediums and influences.
Her personal tableaus are firmly rooted in the classical academic Western painting of her rigorous art school training. However, she puts her own innovative spin on tradition. She works on toned paper and combines charcoal, pastel and pencil drawings with acrylic paints. She then composes scenes derived from her experiences living in both Nigeria and America, incorporating photo-transfers and collages, filled with family snapshots and images taken from Nigerian lifestyle magazines and the Internet. The result? Intricate, textured works that explore a complex topic—the tug she feels between her adopted home in America and her native country.
See more of her paintings below.
No comments:
Post a Comment