By: Chieloka Anadu A scrap of paper, a stray mark, a gesture made without a plan: for Jihène Bouden, any of these can be where a work begins. The Tunisian visual artist works mainly with collage, drawing, scribbling, and mixed-media experimentation, building a practice around trace, fragment, material, perception, and the living. Informed by philosophy,…

By: Chieloka Anadu In Mpilwenhle Gwala’s work, black and white are never just colours. They stand for the good moments and the difficult ones that make up a life, set side by side until the contrast itself becomes the story. Based in Pretoria, South Africa, Gwala works under the name Morbal Art, a practice that…

By: Chieloka Anadu Goldie rarely knows how a painting will end when she begins it, and she likes it that way. Born Wendy Olaitan Idowu and working under the name Goldie, she is a self-taught painter whose figurative, symbolic work explores identity, heritage, memory, strength, growth, and the human experience. Her process is intuitive: she…

By: Chieloka Anadu Every family carries stories that outlive the people who first told them, and for Osaze Andrew Osayande, those inherited stories are where the work begins. Based in Lagos, the visual artist and sculptor moves across painting, sculpture, and mixed media, building pieces around memory, identity, ancestry, spirituality, and cultural continuity. Through symbolic…

By: Chieloka Anadu A full-time professional studio artist based in Lagos, Nigeria, Babatunde Ogunlade studied art at Federal Polytechnic Auchi in Edo State, graduating with an upper credit in Painting in 2002, and after completing his NYSC in Kano in 2003, returned to Lagos to begin his career as a full-time studio artist – a path…

By: Chieloka Anadu Folakemi Olawoye is the self-taught Nigerian founder of Folartsy Studio, working primarily in contemporary abstract art. Her paintings explore emotion and, at times, everyday experience, often arriving at something calm and peaceful. Flowers run throughout her practice – her signature floral stamps appear in most of her paintings, becoming one of the…

By: Chieloka Anadu Joseph Egheosa Ifada is a self-taught Nigerian visual artist and a graduate of Theatre and Media Arts from Ambrose Alli University, whose practice centers largely on the human mind – self-reflection, self-awareness, and mental health. He is drawn to what people experience both internally and externally: “the things we don’t always say,…

By: Chieloka Anadu Izoduwa Ero, a Nigerian artist working under the creative name Ized Art, traces her relationship with art back to Kindergarten Three, when holding a pencil first let her turn an idea in her head into something visible on paper. That early curiosity never left her, even as her interests grew increasingly rooted…

By: Chieloka Anadu A contemporary visual artist working primarily with discarded electronic waste – cables and wires pulled from the margins of consumption and given new life. Her practice is, at its core, about transformation: “taking what society discards and giving it new dignity, new story, and new power and life.” Resilience, identity, heritage, and…

By: Chieloka Anadu Emmanuel Ngunga is a Congolese painter from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, now based in Cape Town, South Africa, where he continues a practice that began with training at the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Kinshasa. His work is rooted primarily in realism and hyperrealism, built mainly with acrylic on canvas, and centers…