Njideka Akunyili Crosby: I Refuse to be Invisible

This is the first publication on Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s work featuring essays by Cheryl Brutvan and Taiye Selasi, and an interview with the artist.

Akunyili Crosby was born in Nigeria in 1983 and moved to the United States at the age of 16, where she has lived and worked ever since. Drawing on artistic, historical, political and personal references, Akunyili Crosby creates densely layered figurative compositions that conjure the complexity of contemporary experience. Her cultural identity combines strong attachments to the country of her birth and to her adopted home, a hybrid identity that is reflected in her work.

Crosby has a current show at the National Portrait Gallery, London (The Beautyful Ones, 17 November 2018 – 3 February 2019), and a billboard featuring her artwork, Dwell: Aso Ebi (2017), is being exhibited on the side of Queen Elizabeth Hall, opposite the Hayward Gallery, London (April 2018 – February 2019), as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations.

In September 2018 a new work, Remain Thriving was unveiled at Brixton Underground Station, London (showing until March 2019).

Published on the after the exhibition, Njideka Akunyili Crosby: I Refuse to be Invisible at the Norton Museum of Art, Florida, United States (28 January – 24 April, 2016).

Published with Norton Museum of Art.