Ekene Stanley Emecheta started painting at the age of four and never stopped. Now in his late 20s, the self-taught figurative artist, who lives and works in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, has developed a form of portraiture that tells us more about who a person is than it does about how they look.

By covering his Black subjects’ skin with gauzy shades of white, he intends to erase a characteristic that typically limits, categorizes, and defines. ‘My paintings portray human auras, revealing the subject’s soul,’ Emecheta explains. ‘The transparency of the pigment establishes a passage and allows the viewer to pick through into the psyche of my protagonists and their essence – to see past how they look and to focus on what they are doing.’

Emecheta’s subjects – desaturated yet detailed – are both real and imagined, often including people who have had an impact on his life, whether historical figures or family and friends. ‘They become the narrators of the stories I wish to communicate,’ says the artist, who cites the true story behind Man with Ice Cream and Man with Liquor (both 2021) as particularly significant. The diptych presents two male figures against plain, pastel-blue backdrops: ‘In 1969, Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton was imprisoned under the false accusation of assaulting a truck driver and stealing ice cream. Shortly after his release, he was assassinated by police – just before his only child, Fred Jr., was born,’ says the artist. ‘Years later, Fred Jr. was imprisoned for allegedly committing arson [during the 1992 Los Angeles uprising] with a scotch bottle.’

Alongside oils on canvas that allude to the unjust treatment of Black men, women, and children are works that investigate the intimate relationships between humans and nature. Deen’s Diary (Our Different Spots) (2022) shows a whitewashed woman in a coffee-colored dress and hat, with her Dalmatian dog, reading in a dappled forest. The painting explores what Emecheta describes as ‘the different ways we think, the different ways we feel but still find to connect.’ With his art, he hopes to inspire unity. ‘To preserve our history, to forge a new future.’

Ekene Stanley Emecheta is represented by The Breeder, Athens.

Chloë Ashby is an author and arts journalist based in London. Her first novel, Wet Paint, was published in April 2022.

Published on May 10, 2023.

Caption for full-bleed images: Portraits by Lida Macha. Courtesy of The Breeder, Athens. A dark filter was applied over the first image for readability.