VISUAL ARTS: Njideka Akunyili

Njideka Akunyili

My art addresses my internal tension between my deep love for Nigeria, my country of birth, and my strong appreciation for Western culture, which has profoundly influenced both my life and my art. I use my art as a way to negotiate my seemingly contradictory loyalties to both my cherished Nigerian culture that is currently eroding and to my white American husband. Most of the Nigerian traditions I experienced growing up are quickly disappearing due to the permeation of Western culture and the ensuing opinion that being ''too Nigerian'' is uncool. I feel dismayed by Nigerians' unquestioningly valuing anything Western as superior however, my awareness of this problem does not exempt me from it - indeed, I question whether this mentality played a part in my falling in love with my husband. My art serves as a vehicle through which I explore my conflicted allegiance to two separate cultures.
5 Umezebi St., New Haven, Enugu 2012
• Acrylic, charcoal, pastel, color pencil and xerox transfer on paper
• 8.75 ft. × 7 ft.

Her Widening Gyre 2011

• Charcoal, acrylic, collage and xerox transfers on paper

 • 4.5 ft. × 6 ft.

My Delicious Darkness 2011

 • Charcoal, acrylic, collage and xerox transfers on paper

 • 8 ft. × 6.5 ft.

 


Re-branding My Love 2011

 • Charcoal, acrylic, collage and xerox transfers on paper

 • 4.5 ft. × 5.5 ft.

 

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Uptown Celebrates

100 Years of Bearden,

Harlem’s ‘True

Renaissance Man’

 

By Paul Smith on Dec 15th, 2011

 


Njideka Akunyili, a Studio Museum's artist in residence, created a collage in homage to Romare Bearden. (Photo by Paul Smith)

Njideka Akunyili received a package from the Studio Museum in August, containing two sheets of 22 by 30 inch paper and one instruction: Create a collage in homage to Romare Bearden, Harlem’s iconic visual artist.

Akunyili accepted the invitation unhesitantly. As a graduate student at Yale, she had studied Bearden’s work, admiring how he conjured cohesive spaces through disparate images and colors. To prepare for the commission, she boarded a train to New Haven and spent a day scrutinizing Yale’s Bearden collection.

She returned to her cluttered studio on 125th Street (as a museum artist in residence, she works above the galleries) knowing she wanted to adapt Bearden’s palate of saturated primary colors.  But two weeks before the deadline, her pages remained blank.

Akunyili, 28, finally drew two central figures, representing herself and her husband, Justin, dancing in an imaginary nightclub. She gathered family photographs from her wedding in Nigeria and searched the Internet for images by her favorite Malian photographer, Malick Sidibe, (Bearden often referred to fellow artists in his work).

She scanned the fragments and Xerox-transferred them onto the large page, cut the two figures out and moved them about like jigsaw pieces, submitting the work just before deadline.

"Efulefu: The Lost One", Njideka Akunyili's collage, currently exhibited at the Studio Museum as part of The Bearden Project. (Photo: the Studio Museum)

Now Akunyili’s “Efulefu: The Lost One” hangs on the Studio Museum wall, surrounded by The Bearden Project’s 43 other components. September marked the centennial of Romare Bearden’s birth and curator Lauren Haynes decided that a special tribute was in order for this member of her museum’s founding council. “Instead of putting up all the Beardens from our collection,” Haynes said, “we thought it would be interesting to engage artists we work with, though the idea of collage.”

>via: http://theuptowner.org/2011/12/15/uptown-celebrates-100-years-of-bearden-harlem’s-‘true-renaissance-man’/

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Njideka Akunyili

US-based artist Njideka Akunyili is fast becoming the art world’s newest star. At this year’s Art Basel five of her large figurative collage paintings sold out in just half an hour. She was selected for the prestigious Studio Harlem residency program in 2011-2012 and is currently one of the three artists in its exhibition Primary Sources. Rumour has it that major collectors and museums are now vying for the works on show – an impressive feat for the recent Yale University MFA graduate.

Her art addresses her internal tension between her deep love for Nigeria, her country of birth, and her strong appreciation for Western culture, which has profoundly influenced both her life and her art. She uses her art as a way to negotiate her seemingly contradictory loyalties to both her cherished Nigerian culture that is currently eroding and to her white American husband. Most of the Nigerian traditions she experienced growing up are quickly disappearing due to the permeation of Western culture and the ensuing opinion that being ''too Nigerian'' is uncool. 

Akunyili refers her work to Professor Homi Bhabha’s theory of hybridity and the ‘third space,’ in which cultures come together to create a new hybrid social space. It is this big mixed bag of emotions which clearly drives unique and beautiful art as in the case of Akunyili.Njideka was born in Enugu in 1983. 

>via: http://igbopeople.blogspot.com/2012/08/njideka-akunyili.html