Osinachi
Prince Jacon Osinachi Igwe, also known as Osinachi, is a Nigerian digital artist. Known widely as Africa’s foremost cryptoartist, Osinachi started creating visual pieces on Microsoft Word about 15 years ago. Still using the word processor, he creates figurative portraits that mirror both his personal experiences and a unique visual language which he has perfected over the years.
If you are interested in Osinachi’s work, please visit his website and Instagram .
About:
Osinachi was born in Nigeria, more specifically in Aba in the Igbo tribe. He is a self-taught digital artist using Microsoft Word to create colourful and meaningful works. His practice has led conversations around NFTs and how works being produced in the space speak to a larger humanity.
POOL DAY II - Portrait of An Artist, 2021.
The artist uses NFT as a medium, he is very interested in this new way of sharing and selling artworks. Since Osinachi’s works are born digitally, the blockchain permits him to store his creations, make them valuable, show their provenance and prove their authenticity. Osinachi also makes official limited editions of his artworks for those who are interested in physical editions.
Osinachi explores social themes, his identity as a Nigerian, as a black person and as an African as well as themes around his personal experiences. He also depicts problems such as toxic masculinity, homophobia or gender. He wishes to present communities that are less represented, in doing so, he tries to bring down the walls of conformity to avoid putting people in boxes. Osinachi wants the characters he represents to be free, to be themselves.
MAN IN A POOL III, 2021.
In his recent Different Shades of Water series that was presented at the 1-54 art fair and sold at Christie’s, he was deeply inspired by David Hockney. He wished to have a “Britishness” in his works since they were going to be shown in London, but he also wanted to bring to light a black body instead of a white one. These works spoke deeply to the black community at the fair, especially in North America where segregation led to African Americans not having access to pools and subsequently not knowing how to swim. Through these works he wanted to explore the theme of black identity.
Osinachi has a “trinity” of artists that have been important influences for his works: Kehinde Wiley, Devan Shimoyama and Njideka Akunyili-Crosby. These three artists explore themes that speak to him, such as the queer community or nostalgia. Specifically, Njideka Akunyili-Crosby, who comes from the same tribe as the artist does, faces some themes of her work around the Igbo tribe.
After working with Christie’s, Osinachi began projects such as curating the NFT show at the art fair ArtXLagos, which was the first NFT show in West Africa. He has collaborated with a number of galleries such as the Kate Vass gallery in Zurich, which has embraced digital art and blockchain, and invited the artist to do his first solo show. He has also collaborated with Room 57 Gallery in New York City and Kenny Shachter. Kenny Scachter, with whom the very successful collaboration led Osinachi to notice that mixing NFT art and traditional institutions will help educate the public on crypto art and also prove that NFTs can exist alongside traditional spaces.
Selected Exhibitions:
2021
Group Exhibition – “Different Shades of Water”, part of Christie’s First Open: Post-War and Contemporary Art Online, at 1-54 Art Fair, London
Group Exhibition – Crypto Kiosk, Art Basel via Nagel Draxler Galerie, Basel
Group Exhibition – Breadcrumbs: Art in the age of NFTism, Nagel Draxler Galerie, Cologne
Group Exhibition – Selections from the Museum of Crypto Art, The Other Art Fair, Virtual
Group Exhibition – Heat Wave, Room57 Gallery, New York
2020
Two-Person Exhibition – Unfold, Sugar Club, Metaverse – Cryptovoxels (curated by DAO Records)
Solo Exhibition – Existence as Protest, Kate Kass Galerie, Zurich
2019
Group Exhibition – Daydreaming, Artoja, Lagos
Selected Press:
Melanie Gerlis, “Osinachi to offer first African artist’s NFT at Christie’s Europe”, Financial Times, September 2021
Tiana Cline, “Why NFTs Are Having an Arty Moment”, Forbes Africa, August 2021
Bataung Qhotsokoane, “Future of artistic expression in Africa lies in non-fungible tokens”, iAfrikan, July 2021
Nimi Princewill & Stephanie Busari, “Nigerian digital artists are making a mark with NFTs”, CNN Marketplace Africa, June 2021
Kelsey Ables, “Crypto artists have been building a rebellious, underground community of outsiders for years. Now they’re making a living selling NFTs”, The Washington Post, May 2021
Sandali Handagama, “The NFT craze is helping Nigerian artists go global”, CoinDesk, April 2021
Karia Pequenino, “A cryptoarte e um novo universe artistico?”, Publico Domingo, March 2021
Jon Sarlin, “NFTs have completely transformed these digital artists’ lives”, CNN Business, March 2021
Jason Bailey, “2020 Art Market Predictions”, Artnome, January, 2020
