Njideka Akunyili Crosby: “The Beautyful Ones”

Njideka Akunyili Crosby is one of the most distinctive voices of her generation. This book, only the second publication on the Los-Angeles based artist, considers her acclaimed, ongoing series “The Beautyful Ones”. It features extensive illustrations of works in the series and an essay by Siddhartha Mitter, who, reflecting on the work’s complex history, weaves together the social, cultural, personal and political strands of its making. 

‘In her work, Akunyili Crosby sets herself constraints, then slips them… The rules and the slippage operate in tandem; together they queer both the family and the national archive. She creates a new memory-script that floats across spaces and the fields of signs.’ – Siddhartha Mitter