Red Head II2021, 119.4 x 100.3 cm
Collins Obijiaku Born 1995, Kaduna, Nigeria. Lives and works in Abuja, Nigeria.

Obijiaku's elegant portraits of Black men and women gaze directly at the viewer. The artist uses various materials, often mixing oil, acrylic, and charcoal to achieve soft gradients, seductive texture, and beguiling linework; seen up close, the arrangements of his brushstrokes are almost cartographical in appearance. The artist’s subjects are both people close to him and strangers he meets on the street, which allows Obijiaku to create intimate records of his home and surrounding community.

Obijiaku has exhibited internationally, including New York, London, Lagos, and Accra. He was an artist-in-residence at Black Rock Senegal, a multidisciplinary residency program founded in 2019 by Kehinde Wiley in Dakar, Senegal.

As stated by the artist, "there is an unlimited wealth of ideas that are bound within the fabrics of chance conversations or interactions that unfold and progress naturally. And many of these ideas, or fresh perspectives, carry the potential to nudge us, as [either] individuals and groups, into the path of positive change."


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