Njideka Akunyili Crosby

About

Njideka Akunyili Crosby was born in 1983 in Enugu, Nigeria, into a middle-class family; her mother was a professor of pharmacology and later served in the Nigerian government, while her father was a surgeon. She moved to Lagos at age 10 for boarding school and emigrated to the United States at 16 in 1999 via the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. Initially pursuing pre-medical studies, she shifted to art during her senior year at Swarthmore College, graduating with a BA in 2004. She earned a post-baccalaureate certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2006 and an MFA from Yale University School of Art in 2011. She lives and works in Los Angeles, is married to artist Justin Crosby, and her work explores diasporic identity through layered paintings combining personal photos, Nigerian media, collage, and drawing.[1][2][5]

Layered figurative compositions blending personal and Nigerian imagery to explore diasporic identity, often categorized in Afro-Surrealism