Skip to main content
Dwell: Me, We
Artist
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
(Nigerian, born 1983)
Date2017
MediumAcrylic, transfers, colored pencil, charcoal, and collage on paper
DimensionsUnframed: 96 × 124 in. (243.84 × 314.96 cm)
Credit LineCollection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Gift of the Director's Council and Museum purchase, The Benjamin J. Tillar Memorial Trust, 2019
Object number2019.15
Status
Not on viewCopyright© Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Category
Label TextNjideka Akunyili Crosby moved from Nigeria to the United States at age sixteen, and her work reveals aspects of home life in both countries. In paintings on paper such as Dwell: Me, We, 2017, the artist layers a variety of materials, including fabric, acetone photo transfers, colored pencil, and paint, which metaphorically conjures the layers that make up her hybrid sense of identity. Dwell: Me, We is an interior scene grounded in domestic life that is uniquely personal and political. Images from Nigerian fashion and society magazines, family photo albums, and pictures of black civil rights leaders merge with aspects of the artist’s current daily life in Los Angeles.
An isolated figure (a self-portrait) sits contemplatively at a dining table. Her patterned dress is from a contemporary Nigerian designer, while her coffee cup is printed with a local Los Angeles chain’s logo. The furniture is distinctly Western—the midcentury modern console is from West Elm and the chairs are from IKEA. The dog in the foreground is another element the artist finds particularly American, as many Nigerian households do not keep domesticated animals. The floor and part of the wall are embedded with hundreds of images—acetone photo transfers—including pictures of African American luminaries such as Angela Davis, Colin Kaepernick, Beyoncé, and Michelle Obama.
Dwell: Me, We is one of a pair of works; its sister piece, Dwell: Aso Ebi, is in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. The two paintings feature the same figure, but the woman in Dwell: Aso Ebi is situated in a typically Nigerian interior. Although Akunyili Crosby’s art speaks to her experience as part of the Nigerian diaspora, her work also relates to the broader immigrant experience.
An isolated figure (a self-portrait) sits contemplatively at a dining table. Her patterned dress is from a contemporary Nigerian designer, while her coffee cup is printed with a local Los Angeles chain’s logo. The furniture is distinctly Western—the midcentury modern console is from West Elm and the chairs are from IKEA. The dog in the foreground is another element the artist finds particularly American, as many Nigerian households do not keep domesticated animals. The floor and part of the wall are embedded with hundreds of images—acetone photo transfers—including pictures of African American luminaries such as Angela Davis, Colin Kaepernick, Beyoncé, and Michelle Obama.
Dwell: Me, We is one of a pair of works; its sister piece, Dwell: Aso Ebi, is in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. The two paintings feature the same figure, but the woman in Dwell: Aso Ebi is situated in a typically Nigerian interior. Although Akunyili Crosby’s art speaks to her experience as part of the Nigerian diaspora, her work also relates to the broader immigrant experience.