Thirteen artists have been commissioned by the musician to make works corresponding to singles on his new record
The Afropop star Oluwatosin Ajibade—better known by the stage name Mr. Eazi—will launch his latest album alongside an international exhibition of African art entirely commissioned by him.
Each song on the album has been turned into work by one of 13 artists representing a total of 8 countries on the continent. These include the Contonou-based artist Dominique Zinkpe, Edozie Anedu from Lagos and the Texas-based Cameroonian artist Sesse Elangwe, who is one of two artists to make a work based on the album's first single Chop Time, No Friend.
Elangwe's The Way I See It (2023) is a mixed collage work pasting in headlines from Ajibade’s non-music career and personal life, including his work with Hugo Boss and partnership with the Ghanaian betting company Bet Pawa.
The project is being funded by Choplife IP—Ajibade's company that was founded to invest in African culture; from music to film.
The idea for the exhibition—which will travel to Lagos, Accra, London and New York—was created at a time that Ajibade was feeling uninspired by his work; "I was tired of making music," he tells The Art Newspaper. He was recording for the album in Benin in 2021, staying at the capital’s Hotel Maison Rouge, when he came across the work of Cotnou native Patricorel. Seeing the artist’s irreverent, skeletal etchings in the exhibition being held at the hotel "was the first time I really realised that certain types of art caught me," Ajibade says. Read more
