These are Africa’s best NFT artists that you need to follow right now
The year 2021 was entirely dominated by Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs. These digital collectables such as paintings, music tracks or something as simple as a signature can be sold online via NFT platforms such as Opensea, Ethereum or NFT-X. While critics disagree on whether this is the end of “real” art and the environmental risks of minting NFTs, one thing is clear: NFTs are here to stay. They offer traditional artists more options as a decentralised model that skips gallery intermediaries. With the increasing popularity of NFTs, it is interesting to look at which artists have played or will play a role in the digital art scene in the past year and coming years. We take you in on our top 4 best African NFT artists.
Osinachi
Prince Jacon Osinachi Igwe is one of the most famous African artists in the world of NFTs today. This 29-year-old artist started at an early age with interest in technology, specifically Microsoft Word, which he has now mastered. This digital program is the basis of many of Osinachi’s works of art. Osinachi’s artworks revolve around a male subject, which he often combines with a style of surrealism in which he expresses human experiences. The Nigerian artist debuted his work at New York’s Ethereal blockchain summit in 2018, and he was a nominee for the Bridgeman Studio Award the following year. Osinachi’s famous works are “Mirror Mirror” and “Am I Pretty?”. These sold both online for 9 ETH ($38,437) and 13.2ETH ($56,375). Selling these artworks as NFTs made Osinachi one of the first African NFT artists to showcase his artwork at Christie’s, the well-known auction house in London.
Odion Tobi
The next African NFT artist on this list is Odion Tobi. Tobi, just like Osinachi, also showed interest in digital creative programs such as Photoshop at an early age, which gave him his creative skills. Now, years later, the focus of this African artist lies in 3D animation, illustration, and motion graphics. The general themes that you will find in Tobi’s work are love, technology itself and his African heritage. His work was recently shown at the Coin Geek conference in New York.
Anthony Azekwoh
Anthony Azekwoh’s work first became popular on Twitter. The artwork on Twitter called “The Red Man” is a portrait of a looming man with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. The painting was later sold on Charged Particles, an NFT platform where artists can sell their work. What makes Azekwoh extra worth following or checking out on social media is that he donates a part of the proceeds from his sold NFTs to help young, emerging artists with a fund that pledges 200,000 nairas.
Oyindamola Oyekemi Oyewumi
Last but not least, since 2018, Oyindamola Oyekemi Oyewumi has been drawing portraits with a simple ballpoint pen on paper. However, her breakthrough as an NFT artist was only recently when she posted a drawing by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson on Twitter. Hoskinson was a fan of the portrait and helped Oyindamola sell the picture as NFT. Not much later, the image sold for a mere $6,300 on Mintable. As the popularity of NFTs will only continue to increase in the coming years, Oyindamola will play an essential role as a figurehead for other Nigerian female artists.
