Njideka Akunyili Crosby

This piece is made up of two works on paper, presented side by side. Njideka Akunyili Crosby used charcoal, acrylic paint, graphite and transfer prints for the multi-media artworks. The left-hand image shows a woman who represents an African cosmopolitan lifestyle, sitting in a room that mixes modern interior design with the decorative lattice work cement ventilation system that was popular in houses built in late 1970s Lagos. The right-hand image is of a kitchen, with utensils and kitchen tools from different periods in Nigeria’s history. Both the left and right pieces of the artwork are printed with images from pop culture, magazines, newspapers and the artist’s own family photographs. The artist chose these specific images to highlight the changes that were seen over two generations of Nigerians – from the 1960s to the 2010s.

• Artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby
• Artwork Predecessors
• Material FSC Certified paper and wood
• Date of work 2013
• Credit Original: Acrylic, transfers, coloured pencil and charcoal on paper Two panels 212 × 212.3 cm, 212 × 212.9 cm Tate. Purchased with funds provided by the Acquisitions Fund for African Art supported by Guaranty Trust Bank Plc 2014 © Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Njideka Akunyili Crosby (born 1983) is a Nigerian-born artist working in Los Angeles, California. Growing up in both Nigeria and the US, Akunyili Crosby initially studied medicine before deciding to become an artist. She studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts before earning a Master of Fine Arts degree at Yale University School of Art. She has had exhibitions at several prominent institutions across the US, and won multiple awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship Genius grant in 2017. Her work addresses the experiences of the Nigerian diaspora, with strong autobiographical and pop culture elements. Two of her works, Predecessors, 2013, and Remain, Thriving, 2018 (created for Brixton Underground station, close to Tate’s London sites) are held in Tate’s collection.