Njideka Akunyili Crosby uses a mix of collage, drawing and painting to create large-scale artworks with an emotive punch. The artist draws viewers into her works through details within acetone-transfer prints of small photographs takes from the internet and Crosby’s own photographs, in addition to magazines and advertisements. The layers, patterns, and their varying degrees of transparency create dreamlike images that move in and out of reality. In this way, the works hint at the complexities of fantasy and actuality in everyday domestic life.
According to Victoria Miro, Crosby’s London gallery, the Nigerian-born artist is inspired by the post-colonial musings of theorist Homi K. Bhabha, who wrote of ‘”the third space’ a point of overlap, conflation and mixing of cultural influences specific to diaspora communities.” Though Crosby’s works are born from personal experiences — namely her childhood and years as a newlywed — they touch on universal themes like love, family, and the domestic sphere, making them highly poignant and widely relatable.