Njideka Akunyili Crosby wins the Prix Canson 2016

The 2016 Prix Canson winner: Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Informed by art historical and literary sources, Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s complex, multi-layered   works   reflect contemporary   transcultural   identity.  Combining drawing, painting and collage on paper, Akunyili Crosby’s large-scale figurative compositions are drawn from the artist’s memories and experiences.  She  uses  the  visual  language  and  inherited traditions  of  classical  academic western  painting,  particularly  the  portrait  and  still  life.  Akunyili  Crosby’s characters  and scenes,  however,  occupy  the  liminal,  in-between  zone  that  post-colonial theorist Homi K. Bhabha refers to as ‘the third space’, a point of overlap, conflation  and  mixing  of  cultural  influences  specific  to  diaspora  communities. She  is  the  2015 recipient  of  the  Joyce  Alexander  Wein Artist  Prize  from  the  Studio  Museum  in  Harlem. She received her MFA from Yale University of Art and her BA (Honors) from Swarthmore College.

Njideka Akunyili Crosby is currently represented by Victoria Miro Gallery in London. Her works have been featured at international museums and in institutional collections including The Norton Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Hammer Museum, Art + Practice, Tiwani Contemporary, Sensei Exchange, Franklin Art Works, Gallery Zidoun, Modern Art Oxford, 32 Edgewood Gallery, The Moore Building, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Rubell Family Collection/Contemporary Arts Foundation, New Museum, Stevenson Gallery, Landcommandery of Alden-Bisen, Brand New Gallery, Marianne Boesky Gallery, BRIC, Bronx  Museum, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Clifford Chance US LLP, Museum of New Art Detroit, Benrimon Contemporary, Swarthmore College List Gallery, Kravets/Wehby Gallery, Green Gallery, Hunter College Times Square Gallery, Yale University Art Gallery, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, The Tate Modern, The New Church Museum, Zeitz MOCAA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art.