Gabonese artist Naila Opiangah's quest to redefine black representation

Gabonese artist Naila Opiangah, whose paintings of black female nudes have been showcased at the Met Gala, believes artists have a key role to play in forging Africa's future.

"When we talk about the development of Africa, we also need to think about how we preserve who we are," she told AFP from her seaside studio in Accra, Ghana, where she lives when she is not in New York.

Her own exploration of identity comes through her depictions of naked black women -- a blend of the figurative and the abstract -- painted in sober shades of brown, green and muted blue.

Addressing female nudity is a "rather rebellious act given my origins, the way I was brought up, the people I depict and the community to which I belong", the 31-year-old from Gabon said.

"I found myself thinking: 'Why am I ashamed? It doesn't make sense. Why have I grown up in a system where I have to hide my nudity? Why not simply look at the body for what it is?'"

The question became an obsession.

"The relationship we have with the naked body today is a legacy of colonisation," she said.

She was referring to the straitjacket of modesty imposed by 19th-century European colonial powers on the traditional African societies of the time, and the Europeans' stereotypical view that African women were hypersexualised.

"We didn't have such a sexualised relationship with the human body before we were forced to cover ourselves up."

Opiangah left Gabon aged 18 to study architecture in Chicago.

After graduating, she joined the New York studio of renowned Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye.

The experience, she later said, was "traumatic".

In 2023, detailed allegations surfaced in the Financial Times newspaper, accusing Adjaye of sexual harassment, sexual assault and toxic management.

Adjaye has denied his female accusers' versions of events.

Opiangah found solace in the ARTNOIR community of artists, collectors and patrons promoting black, African and diaspora art.

Seizing opportunities

Encouraged by her contemporaries and influential figures in the art world, she turned what had previously been a self-taught hobby into a career as a painter.

Her meeting with acclaimed Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo -- her mentor -- cemented her status as an artist.

Opiangah began catching the attention of collectors and celebrities.

They included US actress and singer Zendaya and Hollywood stylist Law Roach, who wore a jacket Opiangah painted with her signature black female figures to this year's Met Gala -- fashion's biggest night out.

She also won over Chance the Rapper. When he asked to buy one of her works, she refused to sell it until the star committed to collecting more art.

That eventually led to "Child of God", a music video in which Chance raps while Opiangah paints a huge canvas inspired by the song.

The artwork went on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

Opiangah is aware she is a role model for other African women.

'For an African woman, self-confidence is a rare commodity,' says Gabonese artist Naila Opiangah. By Nao Mukadi (AFP)

"I have what I have because I've seized opportunities. For an African woman, self-confidence is a rare commodity," she said.

But she believes she had to leave central Africa to find those opportunities.

In her home country "art is viewed as useless", she sighed.

But being in the United States enabled her to realise it was possible "to live life to the full".

That perspective has become rare in societies where "we move through vortexes that suck the life out of our passions" and where "everyone is merely surviving and we no longer know how to live", she said.