Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Mama, Mummy and Mamma (Predecessors #2), 2014, Photo by the New Church Museum, Cape Town, South Africa.
The artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby was one of three artists who won the 2017 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. This generous grant is awarded to “talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.”
A solo exhibition of artwork by this Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based artist opened last weekend at the Tang Museum at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, and will run through the end of the year. Akunyili Crosby will be at the Tang Museum at 3pm this Saturday, October 21st, for an artist’s talk that is free and open to the public.
In works of art from her Predecessor Series, now on view at the Tang Museum, Akunyili Crosby painted portraits of her family to depict the lives of contemporary Africans in a manner that speaks to universal themes such as family and domesticity. More essential is how her work comments upon African diaspora, or the experiences of Africans abroad, and their lives in the postcolonial era.
