Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Akunyili Crosby paints domestic scenes on paper and builds them up with transferred photographs, so a quiet interior carries layers of imagery in its walls, floors and clothes. Look closely: the patterns are the point, and for a Nigerian-born artist working in the US they hold more than one home in a single room. Her reach grew again in 2026, when her first official joint portrait of Barack and Michelle Obama was unveiled for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. The painting, The Obamas: Springing Forth, uses the same mix of acrylic, colored pencil, charcoal and transfers that defines her gallery work.