Njideka Akunyili Crosby // ⓘ (born 1983) is a Nigerian-born visual artist working in Los Angeles, California.

[1] Through her art, Akunyili Crosby "negotiates the cultural terrain between her adopted home in America and her native Nigeria, creating collage and photo transfer-based paintings that expose the challenges of occupying these two worlds".

Her mother won the U.S. green card lottery for the family, enabling Akunyili Crosby and her siblings to move to the United States and to get financial aid to study there.

[13][14][15] After graduating from Yale in 2011, Akunyili Crosby was selected as artist-in-residence at the highly regarded Studio Museum in Harlem, known for promoting and supporting emerging African artists.

"[17] That same year, a solo exhibition of Akunyili Crosby's work was held at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida.

[19] In 2018, Akunyili Crosby designed the mural that wrapped the Museum of Contemporary Art, Grand Avenue, Los Angeles.

The mural features her signature style of combining painting with collage, printmaking, and drawing to create intricate, layered scenes.

[22] Her work was also featured in the National Portrait Gallery's 2023 Kinship exhibit alongside fellow artists Ruth Leonela Buentello, Jess T. Dugan, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jessica Todd Harper, Thomas Holton, Sedrick Huckaby, and Anna Tsouhlarakis.

[25] Her primary mediums include collage, photo transfer, acrylic paint, charcoal, fabric, and colored pencil.

In this piece, Crosby created clothing out of papier collé (a form of collage that uses prefabricated paper that is applied to a flat surface).

This piece displays a younger version of Crosby laying on a bed in an empty room surrounded by patterns related to her heritage.

[10] She is influenced by writer Chinua Achebe whose focus on changing the English language to fit his culture is interpreted through Akunyili Crosby's artwork.

[1] Akunyili Crosby has staged a large number of solo exhibitions at museums and galleries in the United States and internationally.

[68] By 2016, demand for Akunyili Crosby’s work, which she produces slowly, far outweighed supply, prompting her prices to soar at auction.

[72][73][74][75] In May 2018, Akunyili Crosby set a new personal auction record with the sale of her painting Bush Babies for nearly $3.4 million at Sotheby's New York.