Osinachi (Nigerian, b. 1991), born Prince Jacon Osinachi Igwe, makes intricate figurative digital collages entirely inside Microsoft Word, layering shapes and textures inspired by Nigerian fabrics into scenes about identity, sexuality and protest. Self-taught, Osinachi is based in Lagos and has worked this way for more than fifteen years.
Osinachi grew up in Aba, in southern Nigeria, first writing poetry and short stories, then illustrating those manuscripts on Microsoft Word following an introduction to computers from Osinachi's father around 2006. Osinachi spent about a decade studying English Language and Library Science at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, then worked there as an academic librarian before moving to Lagos to focus on art. In 2018 Osinachi began showing work in the Ethereum crypto art scene, becoming the first Nigerian artist to exhibit at New York's Ethereal Summit. In 2020 Kate Vass Galerie in Zurich became the first gallery to give Osinachi a solo show, “Existence as Protest”. Osinachi's 2021 series Different Shades of Water, five works reworking David Hockney's pool paintings around the Black body and leisure, was shown at the 1-54 African Art Fair in London and then became the first NFTs by a contemporary African artist offered at Christie's Europe.
