Njideka Akunyili Crosby is a Nigerian visual artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. Through her art, Akunyili “negotiates the cultural terrain between her adopted home in America and her native Nigeria, creating collage and photo transfer-based paintings that expose the challenges of occupying these two worlds”.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby was born and raised in Enugu, and is the daughter of the late Dora Akunyili, former director general of NAFDAC, and Chike Akunyili, a surgeon.
She moved to the US, initially planning to study medicine. But pivoted to art in her senior year at Swarthmore after realising she enjoyed her studio classes more than organic chemistry. She would later get an MFA from the Yale University School of Art.
According to Akunyili, she felt a strong urge to tell her experiences as a Nigerian in the diaspora through her art.
Here’s a list of just some of her achievements over the years:
In 2018, Akunyili designed the mural that wrapped the Museum of Contemporary Art, Grand Avenue, Los Angeles. The mural features her signature style of combining painting with collage, printmaking, and drawing to create intricate, layered scenes. She was the second artist to create a mural for the site under a new initiative by the museum. Her work was also included in the 2022 exhibition Women Painting Women at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
In 2026, she was commissioned by the Obama Foundation to produce a portrait of Barack and Michelle Obama for the Obama Presidential Centre in Chicago.
The portrait was just unveiled and will be displayed in the museum’s main lobby. It’s also expected to be part of a broader exhibition at the centre celebrating Obama’s legacy.
As is her art style, Akunyili placed hidden gems within the painting that tell the story of the couple’s lives. Such as a view of Michelle’s childhood home, the Grammys they both won for their memoirs, etc.
