Njideka Akunyili Crosby, born in 1983 in Enugu, Nigeria, is a Nigerian-American artist based in Los Angeles. She created the first official joint portrait of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Titled The Obamas: Springing Forth (2026), the large-scale mixed-media work measures approximately 9 by 10 feet and now hangs in the Hope and Change Lobby of the Center’s museum building, an area open to the public.

Akunyili Crosby’s father, Chike Akunyili, was a surgeon. Her mother, Dora Akunyili (1954–2014), served as Director-General of Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), where she led high-profile campaigns against counterfeit drugs. Many Nigerians recognize Njideka through this family connection. She moved to the United States for education, earning a certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and later degrees from Swarthmore College and Yale School of Art. She is a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant recipient.

Artistic Practice

Akunyili Crosby works in a layered, collage-like style that combines painting, drawing, photography, and photo transfers. She draws from personal and cultural archives—family photos, magazine clippings, fabric patterns, and historical images—to explore themes of memory, migration, identity, and the African diaspora in domestic and intimate settings. Her surfaces often feature solvent transfers of found images, creating dense, textured compositions that feel like visual diaries or palimpsests of lived experience.

For the Obama portrait, she spent months researching the couple’s lives. She studied interviews, memoirs, speeches, family photographs (including images by official White House photographer Pete Souza), and personal artifacts. The final work integrates these elements into a cohesive scene that captures both public legacy and private moments.

The Portrait: The Obamas: Springing Forth

The painting shows Barack and Michelle Obama in an informal, warm setting. Obama appears seated on a table in a dark suit, while the composition weaves in symbolic references: Michelle Obama’s childhood home in Chicago’s South Shore neighbourhood, family keepsakes, books, historical objects, and cultural motifs tied to their journeys. The dense layering of transferred images and painted elements creates a rich, tapestry-like background full of personal and historical resonance.

The title Springing Forth evokes growth, renewal, and emergence—ideas central to the Obamas’ story and the Center’s mission. Obama described the piece as reflecting “so many chapters” of their lives. Michelle Obama praised the “life and joy” infused in the work. The portrait was unveiled privately on June 14, 2026, and opened to the public around Juneteenth.

Significance

This commission places Akunyili Crosby in a select group of artists shaping how the Obamas’ legacy is visually remembered. It is one of 28 original artworks commissioned for the Center. Unlike the earlier official White House portraits (Barack Obama by Kehinde Wiley and Michelle Obama by Amy Sherald), this joint work emphasizes narrative depth, family, and cultural continuity through Akunyili-Crosby’s distinctive technique.

Her approach—rooted in Nigerian heritage, American life, and the blending of personal archives with broader history—aligns with the Center’s focus on storytelling and community. Visitors encounter the portrait immediately upon entering the museum lobby, where it serves as both a greeting and an invitation to explore the layered histories it contains. Akunyili-Crosby continues to produce work that bridges continents and generations. The Obama portrait extends her practice on a public, monumental scale while maintaining the intimate, memory-driven quality that defines her art. It stands as a contemporary document of one of America’s most prominent families, filtered through the vision of a Nigerian-born artist whose own story of migration and legacy echoes aspects of theirs.

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Awarded by the city of Kassel, the prize, named after the founder of the influential documenta exhibition, comes with a €10,000 cash award and is reserved for artists whose work meaningfully engages social, political, and cultural discourse.

Mahama’s selection feels aligned with that ethos. Across his practice, he has consistently interrogated themes of labour, migration, and global economies, often through large-scale installations built from stitched jute sacks, materials that carry both historical weight and everyday familiarity.

What makes this moment particularly significant is how his work operates: expansive in scale, but grounded in lived realities. His installations occupy space, reframe it, and turn buildings and public sites into layered commentaries on trade, history, and movement.

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Beyond the visual language, Ibrahim Mahama’s influence extends into institution-building. Through initiatives like Red Clay Studio, the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA), and Nkrumah Volini in Tamale, he has helped shape Ghana’s contemporary art ecosystem, creating spaces that nurture artists through residencies, exhibitions, and training.

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The Arnold Bode Prize, established in 1980, has long recognised artists who challenge conventional narratives while pushing contemporary art forward. Ibrahim Mahama’s win places him within that lineage, one that values experimentation, critical thought, and cultural dialogue. 

The reaction online has mirrored the weight of the moment. Across social platforms, artists and cultural observers have framed the win as both personal and continental. It signals how African contemporary art continues to command space on global stages.

For Ibrahim Mahama, this isn’t a breakthrough as much as it is a continuation. In recent years, he has steadily built a body of work—and a network—that moves beyond exhibitions into infrastructure and legacy. This latest recognition simply sharpens the narrative: African artists are participating in global art conversations and shaping them.

And in Mahama’s case, they’re doing it on their own terms.

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Born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2000, Azekwoh’s journey into the arts was not conventional. He began as a writer, weaving tales before turning his imagination toward digital canvases. A self-taught artist, he honed his craft in a space where formal art training was not a prerequisite for greatness. His hunger for creative expression led him to leave his studies in chemical engineering at Covenant University in 2019, an audacious move that proved to be the ignition of a meteoric rise.

At the heart of his artistry lies an obsession with storytelling; figures from history and mythology take new forms under his brush. His works summon the presence of Orishas, forgotten warriors, and the spirits of African legends, breathing life into them with an almost haunting intensity. Sold for $25,419, The Red Man, one of his most famous pieces, became emblematic of his ability to create work that feels both mystical and immediate.

Anthony Azekwoh‘s talent has found a home in multiple spaces: the world of NFTs, the covers of books, and more recently, the music industry. His signature style, a fusion of realism, surrealism, and folklore has made him a sought-after collaborator for musicians looking to extend their sonic storytelling into the visual realm. He has worked on cover art for artists such as Adekunle Gold, Show Dem Camp, Blaqbonez, and Masego, each piece adding a new layer of depth to their musical narratives. His recent collaboration on Young Jonn’s ‘Jiggy Forever‘ album cover is yet another prove of his ability to translate ideas into striking imagery.

But beyond the aesthetics, Anthony Azekwoh’s work represents a reclamation. His paintings remind us that African mythology is not a relic but a living, breathing force. His digital brushstrokes stretch across time, pulling the past into the present and refusing to let history fade into obscurity.

His foray into literature mirrors this same ethos. His novel ‘The Fall of the Gods’ is another extension of his world-building, proving that his artistry isn’t confined to a single medium. Through words and visuals, Anthony Azekwoh continues to carve out a space where African narratives are seen, felt, and immortalised.

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Dr. Fola David, who is also renowned for his hyper-realism artworks, showcased his artistic prowess at the Onikan Stadium in Lagos, drawing the attention and support of numerous celebrities and dignitaries. Among the notable figures was Hilda Baci, the celebrated Nigerian chef and Guinness World Record holder, who visited the venue with well wishes, food, and supplies to support Dr. David’s artistic marathon. Additionally, former presidential candidate Peter Obi made a personal appearance to commend Dr. David’s extraordinary efforts.

An alumnus of the University of Lagos, Dr. David has garnered significant recognition in the art world. He was nominated for The Future Awards Africa Prize for Art & Culture, underscoring his dual talent in both the medical and artistic fields.

This achievement marks a significant milestone in Dr. Fola David’s career, highlighting the fusion of his medical expertise and artistic talent. His record-breaking artwork not only sets a new benchmark in the world of visual arts but also inspires a new generation of artists and creatives in Nigeria and beyond.

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