The First Lagos Man

The First Lagos Man is one of the most important paintings I’ve made this year, and in many ways, one of the most personal.

A man dressed in red agbada sits beneath a sky filled with the people, memories, and celebrations of Lagos. He covers much of his face, but his eyes remain fixed on us. Above him is an entire city, its beauty, its weight, its contradictions.

I’ve spent years building a world around Lagos, trying to capture not just what the city looks like, but what it means to be made by it.