Afrofuturism, African folklore & Western pop culture

Suleiman Gwadah (Kaduna, Nigeria) infuses Western entertainment with African folklore in his art.

My art is heavily influenced by a love of entertainment. My favourite genres are sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. The weird and wonderful visuals they provide inspire me. I like to create artwork that takes those visuals and reinterprets them through the lens of African folklore and pop culture.

An idea for a piece of artwork can come to me from simply observing the people and places in my surroundings and imagining what they would be like in a completely different time and place.

The challenge of infusing my favourite aspects of Western entertainment culture with my African heritage is my main inspiration for creating artwork. I suppose that’s my longwinded way of saying that my artwork is influenced by Afrofuturism.