Earth Tones, Red Heat, Packed Crowds: Inside Tony Nsofor's "Eje Ayọ"

By Udemma Chukwuma

In Line to Nowhere (Citizens of Nowhere series) 

Colour in Tony Nsofor’s paintings does what the crowded subjects cannot. The colours change from one painting to the next, and each canvas follows its own distinct scheme.

Four paintings he will show in Eje Ayọ, his homecoming exhibition, share something in common: crowded subjects. People press against one another, drawn in bold, colourful strokes that compete for attention, and no figure stands alone. The works are In Line to Nowhere, Clashing Bodies Make Good Music, The Crown Is Near, Wherever You Are and One from Among You.

“The works were created between 2019 and now, from my time in Lagos, then Ivory Coast, and in the USA. The chaotic and magical energy of Lagos is important to me as a study of the human experience. The crowd of street hustle, the nerve-racking need to be attentive to one’s environment, all those things. It made sense at the time to leave for Abidjan in search of more tranquil places,” he explains.

One from Among You (Citizens of Nowhere series)

About thirty artworks created in six cities: Lagos, Abidjan, New York, Atlanta, Alexandria and Oguta, will be on view at the National Museum, Onikan, Lagos, from November 3 to 9, 2026, between 10am and 6pm daily.

"This exhibition is a retrospective of a restless phase in my life when I was constantly moving, relocating to new spaces. The planning of this exhibition has helped me to articulate the journey, to unpack works created in the last nine years,” Nsofor says.

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In the four paintings previewed, figures fill the canvas from edge to edge, and several are cut off by the frame, so the crowd seems to continue beyond it. The painting has little sense of depth: no horizon, no clear floor, and figures sit close to the surface and overlap one another. Heads, upper bodies and limbs share outlines, so it can take a moment to separate one body from the next.

“The stylistic twists resonate with the times and moods prevalent in those spaces at the time. From earth-coloured, crowded canvases to multicoloured field paintings, from full-bodied women to body parts strewn everywhere. Then there are the works that celebrate colour, and there is no body, just pure emotion. They are markers of each of those places, like location points on a map. The map of my life’s journey.”

The Crown Is Near(Citizens of Nowhere series)

For a painter whose recent years have taken him from Oguta to Virginia and back, the exhibition summarises his career and hints at what visitors can expect. "I went through the works stored up in my home—old works created in Lagos, the paintings from the US and Ivory Coast, and recent works created since my return in October last year. Access is given to old and new friends to see how I worked, and how travelling and the spaces have affected my work."

Drawing drives the work. Nsofor outlines faces, shoulders and limbs in black or dark brown lines of varying thickness, often with a single confident stroke. Eyes and mouths are reduced to a few marks, which makes the faces look like masks. Many of his subjects read as people waiting.

Three of the four works belong to the Citizens of Nowhere series, while Clashing Bodies Make Good Music belongs to the Mansa Musa Travels series. Both series tie Nsofor's figures to ideas of movement, migration, nationality, identity and the stereotypes people encounter in new places, especially overseas.

One from Among You (Citizens of Nowhere series), an acrylic on canvas, is more ordered and noticeably calmer than the others. It sits in cooler territory, with blue, soft yellow and ochre dominating. A single tall band of orange near the centre is the one loud note, and it anchors the composition. It gives the eye a place to land. The figures' faces turn in different directions. The title speaks directly to the viewer, and the painting does too: it could be a queue, a gathering, or people simply passing through.

Clashing Bodies Make Good Music (Mansa Musa Travels series)

In Line to Nowhere (Citizens of Nowhere series) works like a frieze, with tall figures arranged in a rhythmic row across a wide canvas. Painted in acrylic on canvas, it is almost entirely red and yellow. Heavy black lines tie the closely related palette together, while quick white strokes keep the forms from collapsing into a single shape. The palette gives the waiting a heat and tension that the title only hints at.

Clashing Bodies Make Good Music (Mansa Musa Travels series) goes the other way. Its palette is earthier, with browns, greys and ochres broken by small touches of pink, blue and orange that stand out against them. The dark contours do most of the organising, holding a crowd of brown and grey forms together. The subjects are packed so tightly that outlines overlap and faces nearly merge, with forms interlocking like pieces of a puzzle waiting to be solved. The title treats that crush as a kind of music.

The Crown Is Near is the busiest of the four paintings, with red, yellow, violet and pink all competing at once. It is executed in oil and spray paint on canvas, showing a change of medium.

Taken together, the four works suggest how much of the exhibition rests on crowds rather than individuals. Three paintings from the Citizens of Nowhere series, which span from 2017 to 2025, show the subject staying with him over years of movement between places. The Mansa Musa Travels series adds another thread, since it appears to link his travels to the journeys of the fourteenth-century West African ruler.

Nsofo in his studio in Oguta

The paintings do not settle into one clear scene, and the viewer is left to decide who is in the line, who is arriving and who is leaving. These works offer a sense of how he is thinking and how his experiences during this period appear on canvas.

The homecoming in the exhibition's title may be as much about that return as about the journey. For Lagos audiences, the exhibition offers a chance to see how years of travel and distance have shaped a painter who still keeps one eye on home. He is also exploring photography, video and sound, so visitors should be ready for more than canvases.

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"It is the art season. There is a lot to celebrate. A homecoming is joyful. So, here I am. The traveller who remembers home."

Nsofor, formerly Anthony Chukwudinma Nsofor, studied in the Arts Department of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and has worked in painting and photography since graduating. His early career was spread across the Lagos art scene. He now works between his studio in Oguta, Imo State, and the Torpedo Factory Art Centre in Alexandria, Virginia, USA, where he has been a resident artist since 2022.

Images: courtesy of the artist. All rights reserved.

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