Born in the entrepreneurial city of Aba, Nigeria in October 1991, Osinachi is a digital artist who creates art that pushes boundaries. The first boundary, of course, is the limited design palette present in the word processing software Microsoft Word, the software with which he produces his art.

His art explores themes of LGBTQ+, androgyny, family life, pop culture in Africa. He lives and works in Enugu, Nigeria.

Nwanyi Anu Na-awka Awka, osinachi__

Nwanyi Anu Na-awka Awka

 

Agbonma

 

In Nwanyi Ahu Na-akwa Akwa, Osinachi makes a visual ode to his mother the seamstress and fashion designer –a Singer sewing machine, the common tailoring machine in West Africa can be seen in the frame. Osinachi depicts black bodies in normalcy as there is an element of everydayness familiar to the West African eye present in his work. In Agbonma, we encounter threaded hair and in August Meeting II, there is Okpo Azu Ankara print.

 

August Meeting II

August Meeting II

 

As a protest artist, it is not just in its everydayness that the beauty of Osinachi’s work is found. It is also in its subversiveness. Whatever you find in his frames –bouquets, or black bodies, or Ankara prints, or potted plants, or bottles of insecticide – there is a subject matter that sparks conversation and seeks answers.

 

Nduka’s Wedding Day

Nduka’s Wedding Day

 

In Nduka’s Wedding Day, there is a clear confrontation. With a government that has garroting anti-LGBTQIA+ laws, queer people in Nigeria have been told they do not deserve to dream. In his interview with SuperRare he stated ‘I believe art is not escapism, and I live this reality by making art that boldly stares this sort of discrimination in the face’. Nduka’s Wedding Day inserts an othered body into a space of celebration that they are otherwise excluded from by the country’s lawmakers.

 

The Raidaint Child, Jean-Michele Basquait

The Raidaint Child, Jean-Michele Basquait

 

Whether it is a portrait of Basquait (The Raidaint Child, Jean-Michele Basquait), or a word process rendering of his contemporaries, you are sure to find blackness and queerness at the centre of Osinachi’s work.

You can reach Osinachi via his Instagram page at instagram.com/__osinachi/.

 

Amanda Madụmere is an Igbo documentary photographer, writer, visual artist and activist. She is obsessed with words, images, history, mental health, the intersectionality of identities, and art as a tool for activism.