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Curator's Note

Àríké carries the name her family chose: meant to be spoiled on sight. Funmilayo Tejumola paints her as a young woman preparing for marriag…

Curator's Note

A single balloon, four strings, and a lion who clearly disagrees. Anth Ezeokoye turns the Igbo proverb Onye kwe, chi ya ekwe into a deadpan…

Curator's Note

Emmanuel takes the thing a woman is taught to cover and paints it as weather: vitiligo shaped like clouds at first light. It is the gentles…

Curator's Note

Look long enough and the noise resolves into order: the whole field is built to read the same upside down. Anth Ezeokoye's training as an a…

Curator's Note

Her eyes are closed, and that changes everything. She is not surveying a court; she is somewhere inward, chin lifted, a queen with no need …

Curator's Note

Omotayo Tajudeen lights his sitter from behind until the gold seems to come from the figure itself. The crown is beaded, the robe sweeps ou…

Curator's Note

The molue at the front of this picture has mostly left Lagos roads, which is exactly why it belongs here. Anth Ezeokoye parks the old Merce…

Curator's Note

Of Toni Kuyinu's three royals, only the king keeps his eyes open, and he wears round wire glasses. A thoroughly modern young man, crowned w…

Curator's Note

Start at the white star in the centre and follow one petal outward. Ibrahim packs leaves, scrolls and hatching so densely that every return…

Curator's Note

Sisi is the Yoruba word for a young woman in her prime. Christian paints two of them mid-stride, one gazing up at the other as if the next …