Portrait of Anthony Nsofor
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Anthony Nsofor

Drawing, Multidisciplinary, Multidisciplinary Art, Painting, Visual / Media

About the Artist

I have worked consistently in Painting and Photography since graduating from the Arts Department of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I was gallery manager at the African Foundation for the Arts, Lagos, and an Art teacher at Whitesands School, Lagos. I also worked briefly as an art writer for The Comet Newspapers, Lagos, and have written essays for several publications. My work focuses on the Black experience and encounters in Other spaces- with being the black male with all the connotations attached from a troubled history, the politics of being pushed to the periphery, of migrations. An avid traveler, I am fascinated by the cultural conversations happening all over the world.

Featured Work

Photos

This painting belongs to a new body of work called Global Citizens. Global Citizens continues from earlier explorations of the themes of migration and immigration, borders titled Citizens of Nowhere. In this painting, I present the dilemma of articulation divides or distinctions, of categorizations and government policies which may not necessarily have a human face. Since the announcement of the global pandemic, we have seen a questioning of the efficacy of Science, the notion of citizenship and government protection of its borders, lockdowns and so much bewilderment. In a disjointed way, humanity seems to trudge softly into the future, finding a new place and ways of associating. The problems of society and the oppression of minority groups in society all became heightened as the world passed through a shocking phase of isolation. We now must pick up the pieces of our life to find new meaning, and joy in mundane places.
I am intrigued by the idea of the body-beautiful. In Igbo tradition, beauty is in the character of people.