Take a look at this beautiful work by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, a fast selling Nigerian artist who left Lagos for the US at 16. Having intended to become a doctor, she decided instead to pursue a career as an artist as a better way to tell Nigeria’s story: ‘problems of misrepresentation happen when people tell your story for you.’

Crosby draws on Nigerian popular culture and family photographs to create a personal portrait of her home country. Her use of pop culture references mixed with flattened sections of paint and one point perspective borrow from different artistic traditions and she is strongly influenced by Chinua Achebe and other Afro-Caribbean writers.

Crosby is also interested in the mixture of cultures emerging within her home country. ‘There are vestiges of the British presence, but since 2000 the country has been opening up, so you get the American pop influence too.’

The artist is excited to be part of a change in the country’s contemporary art scene with more Nigerians now successfully working as artists on an international scale. You can see more of Akunylii’s work here.