Art is now a big business, and Anthony Azekwoh knows that. The renowned writer and digital artist is one of the global frontrunners earning hundreds of thousands in American dollars from digital assets such as Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs).
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Having abandoned life as an engineer for his artistic passions, Azekwoh is known as a radical and unorthodox player within the African art scene.
His most recent collections, including ‘Becoming’ and ‘Homecoming’, both held within the last year, have echoed his avant-garde realism that scrapes beneath the surface of culture and establishes innovation in technique.
Now, from his pandemic-era breakout where his ‘The Red Man’ and similarly colour-themed superrealist portraits spotlighted his art as a rare wonder to this very moment, Azekwoh continues to cultivate an audience – of revolutionaries, for the most subtle but delicate work of institutionalising that philosophy and growing the ranks.
Having caught the attention of global figures including Google, The Awele Trust, and The Loose Convo Grant, among others, the self-taught artist sits with Guardian Life, to let us in on his ‘Azekwohverse’ and all the dynamics that keep it running; from selling art for millions to investing in the future with digital tokens.
How did you enter the art scene?
I have been a writer since I was 13. Writing remains the way I get my thoughts and ideas out. In 2016, my laptop broke, and so, because my handwriting was very horrible, I couldn’t write properly anymore. So, I just picked up some leftover pens in my house, and I started drawing on those leftover A4 paper. From then, I remembered showing my mom, and she was like…oh, this is nice. From there, I started drawing digitally. I started drawing with a mouse on my laptop. I tried to find out ways around, like, I was late because I was thinking like physical mediums. And I think from there, that is where the whole thing began.
Do you have any philosophy that guides your designs?
I think for me first of all, it is very African, in the sense that it is just very true to me, and my experiences. I think the second is, I am very dedicated to storytelling. So, with my work you know will be like, okay is this interesting? What story am I trying to tell, you know and how is somebody going to relate to this? And from there, it is like something beautiful, I will say is found.
Which painting or, which particular project would you say, acted out for you as one the most complicated?
Man, I would say that I learned how to sculpt digitally, last year, and I’m still in the process of learning. That means something that tested a lot of you know, what I could or couldn’t do, because it’s like, a whole new skill I have to kind of adapt to tell the stories.
Do you have a specific creative process?
I will say it is specific to each process because each has its own thing. Sometimes, it is like something that you are going to have to learn something new and be able to translate to what people can understand. So, yeah it’s something more and more insane, you know everything is very different. So, I would say that, basically.
So, let us know, what are you working on currently.
Right now, we are preparing for my exhibition this year and just putting together the pieces, getting everything together. It’s really going to be a big one, so, of course, it’s been really busy around here. But yeah, we are preparing for that. So, that’s really where my head is now- we are in project mode.
When are we expecting it? Do you have a title for the exhibition yet?
With luck, we are going to be expecting a number of different places. You know, Lagos, Abuja, London, New York, and possibly, Ghana, but it’s going to be a very interesting project and I can’t wait to start talking about that. Soon, we should be able to give out more details.
So, if you were to describe your artistry in a phrase now, how would you put it?
I would say it just represents us. I feel like it just represents Nigerian and African culture, history and where we are, where we’ve been and where we are going. I think it’s reflective of what it is and what it means to be African, to be Nigerian, to live and breathe as we do. I think that to me is what I hope that my art represents.
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