WEST PALM BEACH, FL.- The Norton Museum of Art presents the work of Njideka Akunyili Crosby in the 2016 Recognition of Art by Women (RAW) exhibition. On view January 28 – April 24, 2016, Njideka Akunyili Crosby: I Refuse to be Invisible is the first survey exhibition of the Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based artist’s work. The exhibition features 16 large-scale, early and more recent mixed-media works comprised of painted and collaged elements. The exhibition is organized by Cheryl Brutvan, the Norton’s Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Contemporary Art.
The Norton’s Recognition of Art by Women (RAW) program, made possible by the Leonard and Sophie Davis/MLDauray Arts Initiative, highlights and promotes living women artists working in painting and sculpture. RAW launched in 2011 with the first U.S. museum survey of British artist Jenny Saville’s paintings and drawings. Subsequent exhibitions featured Sylvia Plimack Mangold’s study of landscapes over three decades (2012), Phyllida Barlow’s large-scale sculptures (2013), and the first solo museum exhibition in the U.S. of Sweden-based Klara Kristalova’s ceramic sculptures and drawings (2014). The RAW program also supports publications, research, and educational programming, including the funding of the Leonard and Sophie Davis Curatorial Fellow.
“Diversity has been central to the RAW series. The previous artists represent diverse generations, mediums, and geographic locations. The Norton is thrilled to feature Akunyili Crosby’s work and represent the first review of her mature work,” said exhibition curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, Cheryl Brutvan.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby: I Refuse to be Invisible features works from 2010 to 2015 that comprise both painting and collage, and speak to navigating life as an African in America. With an emphasis on the figure in familial, domestic settings, the artist creates compositions that appear as simple glimpses of everyday life yet, upon closer observation, are careful constructions that are subtly subversive. Akunyili Crosby’s intensive process—which includes studies of poses assumed by her and her family, references to the history of Western Art, illustrations from Nigerian magazines, and the transfer of images by hand—creates layers of information and visual messages that speak to her personal history and of a generation creating new traditions. A publication providing the first in-depth examination of Akunyili Crosby’s oeuvre will accompany the RAW exhibition.
Born in Enugu, Nigeria, Akunyili Crosby spent her formative years in Nigeria before traveling to the United States in 1999 to continue her education. She attended Swarthmore College, earning a BA degree with Honors in Biology and Studio Art. Deciding against a medical career, the chosen path of her parents and siblings, Akunyili Crosby pursued painting, completing a Post-Baccalaureate at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2006 before earning her MFA degree from Yale University in 2011. She is the recipient of the Studio Museum in Harlem’s Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize in 2015 and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s James Dicke Contemporary Art Prize in 2014.
Akunyili Crosby’s work has been exhibited in: Hammer Projects: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, 2015-16, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (solo exhibition); Njideka Akunyili Crosby: The Beautyful Ones, 2015, Art + Practice, Los Angeles (solo exhibition); Surround Audience, 2015 New Museum Triennial, New Museum, NY; Forces in Nature, 2015, curated by Hilton Als, Victoria Miro Gallery, London; Draped Down, 2014, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Bronx Calling: The Second Bronx Biennial, 2013, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Bronx, NY; Jump Cut, 2013, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY; and Primary Sources, 2012, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.
