Born in South London to Nigerian parents, Moses began his journey documenting friends playing football on local pitches. Without formal training, he honed his distinctive style—characterized by rich, moody color palettes, dramatic lighting, chiaroscuro contrasts, and a profound sense of narrative depth. His early work caught the eye of Nike, leading to his first major commission at age 18. By 21, he became the youngest photographer to shoot a Dazed magazine cover, photographing rapper Pa Salieu.

Moses’ signature aesthetic blends fashion, music, and sport with themes of identity, community, heritage, and resilience. His breakthrough monograph Regina (Prestel, 2024), a tribute to the influential women in his life, particularly his grandmother, mother, and sister, solidified his reputation. The book and accompanying exhibitions celebrate femininity, African diaspora experiences, and cultural hybridity. His largest solo show to date, Selah at 180 Studios in London (2025), featured over 70 photographs and 10 films, including music videos for Travis Scott and Playboi Carti’s FE!N, Schoolboy Q’s Lost Times, and portraits of icons like Skepta, Jude Bellingham, and Alek Wek.

The Mbappé shoot for EA Sports FC 27 fits seamlessly into Moses’ trajectory. The French superstar and Real Madrid forward returns as the Ultimate Edition cover athlete after a four-year hiatus, fresh off record-breaking performances, including the 2026 World Cup Golden Boot. Gabriel Moses’ lens captures Mbappé with the intensity, dynamism, and emotional resonance that define both the player’s on-pitch presence and the photographer’s visual language.

This project joins Moses’ growing list of sports-related work, which already includes collaborations with Nike, Adidas, and portraits of football legends like Zinedine Zidane and Bellingham. It underscores his ability to bridge fine art with commercial giants. EA Sports FC vice president Jeff Sharma highlighted Mbappé’s status as a defining player of his generation, a sentiment echoed in Gabriel Moses’ choice to document such cultural moments.

At just 27 or 28 years old, Moses has collaborated with Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Dior, Pharrell Williams, A$AP Rocky, and more. He designed the 2025 BRIT Award trophy and has exhibited globally in Chicago, Milan, Paris, Seoul, and New York. His work consistently explores legacy, faith, and belonging—values rooted in his South London upbringing and Nigerian heritage.

By photographing Mbappé for EA Sports FC 27, Gabriel Moses adds another layer to his legacy. His growing portfolio proves that authentic, story-driven imagery can thrive in the worlds of gaming, sports, and high fashion. As the game’s gameplay reveal and full launch approach, fans can anticipate visuals that not only promote the title but also stand as compelling artworks in their own right. Moses continues to build a body of work that resonates across generations, celebrating excellence while staying true to his vision.

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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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But West Africa does not hold this history alone. Across the continent, the same woven polypropylene bag carries different names and associations. In South Africa, it has long been known as the “Shangaan bag”, linked to stories of migration under Zulu domination, where “Shangaan” was read as shiya ingane (leave the child behind). That phrase captures both the brutal ruptures of forced movement and the survival instincts of communities making do with what they had. In truth, you’ll find multiple accounts and local readings of the bag across the region, each tethered to personal histories of movement, separation, and belonging.

Beyond Africa, the bag has its own diasporic aliases. In Germany it’s called the “Türkenkoffer” — the Turkish suitcase. In the United States, it goes by the “Chinatown tote”. In other places, it’s simply known as the Refugee Bag. Across borders, its reputation is consistent: an object of migration, of working-class endurance, of starting over somewhere new.

Reclaiming the Bag in African Art and Fashion

The “Ghana Must Go” bag has since been reimagined by African creatives who understand its layered symbolism. Ghanaian artist Abdur Rahman Muhammad casts the ‘Ghana Must Go’ bag in oils as a potent symbol of migration in ‘The Allegory of a Seeker’.

The late Ghanaian-British designer Virgil Abloh during his time at Louis Vuitton tapped into the bag’s visual language, embedding it in conversations around movement and global Black identity.

Similarly, Zimbabwean artist Dan Halter has woven the bag into much of his practice, literally unpicking and re-stitching the material to interrogate histories of migration, labor, and colonial legacy.

From the Market to Paris Runway

High fashion has also taken notice. Paris runways have seen Louis Vuitton, Celine, and Balenciaga release reworked versions of the market bag, a deliberate blurring of utility and luxury. For Western houses, the bag is often an aesthetic gesture, like a wink at the everyday elevated into a luxury commodity. 

But for African designers, the stakes are different. The bags, which were cheap, durable, and commonly used by the displaced people, have become a powerful symbol of resilience, adaptability, and the enduring spirit of migrants. Rewriting a narrative of displacement into one of endurance and style.

The Bag as Archive and Symbol

Still, its resonance hits differently here in West Africa. For us, the “Ghana Must Go” bag is an archive that carries the stories of borders crossed, families uprooted, relationship strained and lives rebuilt. And when African designers choose to reshape it, they stitch into it a story of resilience, memory, and survival into the fabric of design itself.

What we see, then, is more than a bag’s journey. It is the transformation of a utilitarian object into a cultural symbol. In its checkered squares lies a reminder of how Africans have always turned necessity into innovation, and how memory itself can be reimagined as art.

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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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His career began with a curiosity sparked by the imagery in his older sister’s bedroom—fashion magazine tear-outs from Vogue and Dazed that subtly shaped his creative instincts. The first time Moses picked up a camera was as a teenager making short films starring friends. Soon he developed a distinct style that caught the attention of fashion houses like Off-White, Nike, Adidas, and Louis Vuitton, steadily rising as one of the most innovative visual artists of his generation.

Gabriel Moses’ early works included shooting campaigns that highlighted the human element of his subjects, an approach inspired by figures like Gordon Parks and Malick Sidibé.

Beyond music and fashion, Gabriel Moses’ artistry is rooted in cultural exploration. His 2023 exhibition, ‘Regina,’ named after the Latin word for “Queen,” paid homage to the women who shaped his life, from his mother to his sister. Held at London’s 180 Studios, it featured 50 works, including ‘IJÓ,’ a film capturing the grace of young ballet dancers in Lagos. This year, Moses’ reach expanded further with a monograph consolidating his career’s highlights and showcasing his gifts as a visual storyteller.

This year has been a remarkable year for Moses, from working with Travis Scott for an Air Jordan campaign featuring the rapper’s mother, Miss Wanda, to directing the photography for Wizkid’s 2024 album, Morayo. The project demonstrated ingenuity and storytelling talents, blending vibrant hues with contemplative settings. A standout element from the shoot was the subtle details in execution and thoughtful recreation of the door featured on the album cover—a tribute to Wizkid’s late mother.

Amongst his many achievements in 2024, Gabriel Moses has been commissioned to design the 2025 BRIT Awards trophy, joining an elite roster of past designers like Dame Vivienne Westwood, Slawn and Es Devlin. Moses claims he drew inspiration from the sculptures his mother displayed at home during his childhood. The texture-driven design pays homage to his Nigerian heritage and his South London upbringing, blending historical significance with a contemporary aesthetic. Speaking about the honor via Brits, Moses shared:

“To be listed alongside some of the greatest artists, designers, and architects is truly an honor… I wanted the features of the sculpture to reflect the memories and culture that shaped me, from the living room of my childhood to the textures and tones that define my work today.”

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Announced in a recent Instagram post, Santino shared that he had been working on the manga for four years, driven by a dream of creating a project that could be enjoyed by people around the world. He expressed his excitement about the project and revealed that the first volume is set to be released soon.

The multifaceted artist reflected on his motivation to create a manga that would stand among the best, further highlighting the growing community of Nigerian creators using progressive mediums to tell their stories. He expressed his excitement over the completion of Volume 1, noting that it marks an important milestone before embarking on new creative arcs.

Cruel Santino’s previous work, including his critically acclaimed album “Subaru Boys: Final Haven,” has been praised for its innovative sound and thought-provoking lyrics. It is possible that the manga series is a continuation of the “Subaru Boys” universe, offering fans a new way to experience the story.

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Drawing from his Yoruba heritage and the pulse of youth culture, Slawn’s works challenge societal norms with raw, childlike boldness. The exhibition made waves right from its opening night, with 21 pieces selling immediately and a full sell-out anticipated as more than 177 canvases were already gone by the second day. Despite some critics dismissing his “scribbles” as simplistic, lovers of his art clearly see the value in his distinctive voice that straddles the line between street art and high art.

Slawn has previously garnered attention for his work, including being the youngest artist ever commissioned by the Brit Awards. This exhibition is just the latest step in a meteoric rise for the artist whose raw, graffiti-like approach mixes satire and social commentary with youthful irreverence.

Slawn’s solo exhibition at Saatchi Yates attracted a notable crowd from both the art and entertainment worlds. Among the attendees were several high-profile figures, including British rapper Little Simz, who is known for her deep connection to contemporary culture and youth movements.

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He expresses his artistic vision through designs, paintings, sculptures, and other art forms. Soldier’s work constantly looks back at viewers with an introspective depth and a powerful but clear narrative.

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Soldier was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and after moving to London, his career waxed stronger as he immersed himself in the city’s vibrant creative scene. His ingenuity doesn’t stop at creating beautiful, thought-provoking pieces, but also in the exhibition of every collection. The artist’s debut performance piece, “Soldier London Tour,” was intended to challenge the customary confines of art display. And he did so by combining music and selecting preferred locations to display his collection throughout the city of London, as opposed to paintings hanging from white walls.

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Aside from his innovative forms of art and style of expression, which distinguish him as an artist, there are subtleties that indicate that Soldier is not one to be bound by conventions.

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“Passport” (a self-portrait), an acrylic and mixed-media piece on canvas, is a reflection on the limitations of borders and passports in a world that belongs to everybody.

It questions the idea of restricted movement and advocates for a world without geographical boundaries. This is one of many thought-provoking pieces that showcase Soldier’s critical perspective on the world.

His collection also includes the 2024 “Ejima (twins) sculpture, and the war paintings, in which he used over 5000 soldier toys (symbolizing the countless lives lost) to complete the set of four paintings.

Both collections suggest that he is still very much in touch with the culture and history of his native Nigeria.

Soldier’s artistic image often spills into his creations; for example, the colours and patterns typical of military combat uniforms in the background of paintings, the collection of paintings using toy soldiers, and so on.

Soldier has an impressive portfolio, having collaborated with Nike, Louis Vuitton, Britain’s finest professional race car driver, Lewis Hamilton, and his clothing brand, Plus44World.

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He’s also the hand behind the artwork for Nigerian rapper Odumodublvck’s fresh single “Not All That,” which reportedly sold on his website for £10,000 after being put on sale for less than 24 hours. The artwork is a macabre painting of the rapper wearing his signature Okpu Agu “warriors hat” and holding in one hand a severed head with blood dripping from the forehead, and a cutlass in another hand. 

Soldier strives to effect change in the world in every possible way, specifically through his art. As an avid skater, he has shown his support for waf, Nigeria’s first functioning skatepark, by selling limited skate decks and donating the proceeds to the building and completion of the skate park.

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MAD House is a ground-breaking initiative conceived by Mr. Bayo Omoboriowo, MFR, an alumnus of the University of Lagos (UNILAG). Launched on December 15, 2023, by UNILAG’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Folasade T. Ogunsola, OON, FAS.

The “MAD House,” standing for “Make A Difference (MAD) House,” is a striking blend of innovation and aesthetic appeal. Its exterior is rustic, while the interior is a functional and visually captivating space created from 26 interconnected shipping containers. This design provides numerous creative portals for exploration.

Mr. Omoboriowo shared his personal journey from mastering photo editing to becoming a celebrated official photographer for Nigeria’s president. His vision is to offer a space where Nigerian creatives can freely explore and actualize their ideas, transforming them into tangible achievements and opportunities.

Built by Patrick Waheed Design Consultancy (PWDC), established in Nigeria in 2006, the MAD House embodies a new era of architectural innovation. PWDC utilized repurposed shipping containers and locally sourced materials like laterite to create a space that merges modern design with eco-friendly practices. Situated along the Lagos Lagoon on the UNILAG campus, the MAD House promotes sustainability and celebrates the natural beauty of its environment, providing a unique platform for collaboration and artistic expression.

MAD House by Tikera Africa serves as a vibrant creative and innovation hub. It functions not only as an art gallery but also as a venue for events, conferences, and more. Make sure to visit soon and experience this dynamic space.

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