55 years of Nigerian Literature Illustration Karo Akpokiere

55 Years of Nigerian Literature: London Life, Lagos Living and Karo Akpokiere's Pop Art

by bookshy - 08:41

Cover design by Osione Itegboje

Back in 2011, Bobo Omotayo released his 'coffee-table book, with a twist', London Life, Lagos Living. What I loved about it when I first read it was the design - inside and out - and, particularly its amazing illustrations. Well, for my penultimate celebratory post, I bring you the work of Karo Akpokiere, including a glimpse inside London Life, Lagos Living.

I love Akpokerie's work and to be honest it was London Life, Lagos Living that introduced me to it. After reading the book, I had to find out everything about Akpokerie's and his art, which is largely inspired by the dynamic pop culture of Lagos. In a recent article, following Akpokerie's apperance at the Venice Biennale, Sean O'Toole writes that his art is an ongoing love letter to Lagos, and that captures perfectly how I feel about it. Hopefully, once you see Akpokerie's works, you will get a sense of the dynamism of Lagos through his 'text rich ... noisy and over-populated drawings'.