Challenging Conventions with Anthonia Ndukauba’s Radical Eroticism Themes
Yinka Olatunbosun
First view: colours. When an artist disrupts your visual expectations with the use of bold colours, simple yet authentic line drawing technique of abstract portraiture, curiosity is piqued. For the UK based Nigerian painter, Anthonia Ndukauba, approaching art from a place of personal experience to disrupt traditional forms of painting has been a journey travelled since 2020 when she opted for full-time studio practice. Her Linkedin profile provides a window into her world of painting marked by subject matters that reek of social commentary.
Shifting her focus to nude figures gave her a distinct artistic voice in affirming vulnerability, diversity and identity. Her works often serve as a repository of emotions where the figures function as vehicles for evoking conversations around presence, resilience and spiritual embodiment.
Grooming her turf at an artist residency programme at Arnheim Art Gallery, Ibadan in 2020, her full-time studio practice kicked off that same year paving way for an artistic growth that has spiralled into a couple of shows in reputable galleries in Nigeria as well as the United Kingdom.
Still, her love for research and knowledge of art opened more doors of opportunity and international recognition. Upon being awarded the NTU Excellence Scholarship, she studied Fine Art (MFA) at the Nottingham School of Art and Design between 2022 and 2024. Later on in 2024, she participated in the prestigious Graduate Exhibition, co-curated by Nephertiti Oboshie Schandorf and Affordable Art Fair Director, Hugo Barclay where her intriguing portraits stirred discourse on social norms as well as marginalised voices whilst using human bodies to affirm vulnerability, diversity and identity.
Leveraging form and content, Ndukauba’s paintings are reminiscent of the 1960s radical eroticism movement where female artists explore sexual fantasies, shifting women from objects of art to active subjects.
Fantasy Escapism (2024), arguably the most daring mixed media painting she has ever made on canvas, pushes the boundaries of sexuality with its embedded politics of profanity. The visual appeal is both chaotic and alluring, radicalising intimacy in an effort to deconstruct conventional, heteronormative notions of closeness and relationships.
In Twin Flame (2021), she creates figures using the one line drawing to reflect intimacy and interdependence. Indeed, intimacy is often considered a taboo subject in Africa due to cultural, religious, or social conditioning that creates stigma, shame, and silence around sexual health and personal connection. However, Ndukauba interrogates this integral part of human relationships to help her audiences unlearn the purity culture. By exploring this experience, the artist helps to democratise conversations about desire, sexuality, sensuality, consent and boundaries.
Unleashing the subject matter of vulnerability, Due Metamorphosis (2020) strikes one as a timely intervention by Ndukauba as it creates a spark in the global conversation around body image and shaming culture. Body shaming culture involves critical, often unsolicited, remarks about someone’s physical appearance, which severely impacts self-esteem, mental health, and body image. Hinged on high societal beauty standards, social media, and interpersonal pressure, frequent episodes of body shaming can cause anxiety, depression, and eating disorders, particularly among women. Most women in the public eye who made transformations as they age are often subjected to ridicule. For instance, the famed singer and businesswoman, Rihanna was trolled for gaining weight after childbirth.
The artist’s self-nudity in Due Metamorphosis is a powerful social commentary to challenge beauty standards, reclaiming body autonomy, and exploring personal vulnerability. Self-nude painting empowers the artist to control their own representation, often exposing flaws and breaking away from unrealistic standards of perfection.
A stand out element in her painting remains the use of green and red- a spiritual invocation that transmits vibrant energy as well as the intricacies of the human experience.
Situating a female subject sitting longingly with some alcohol in the painting titled “Contemplation” challenges patriarchal norms, echoes introspection and emotional desolation. It might also be associated with isolation, social alienation, and the lethargy of urban life. The painting rendered in bold colours interrogates high-achieving women and the paradox of success. More often than not, the factors that lead to success—drive, focus, and self-reliance—can create social dissonance. Long working hours and professional competitiveness can cause rifts in personal relationships. Ndukauba’s relocation to the United Kingdom provided a raw material for navigating issues of social isolation where a woman is caught between the physical absence of her support network and the social erosion of her established identity. The kinship safety net is lost when a woman relocates to another country without her family and because relocation is often framed as a chance of a good life or greener pastures, women such as the one in “Contemplation” experience “disenfranchised grief”—a sense of detachment from their old life and a new culture that doesn’t fully validate.
Unlike hyperrealistic artists who aim for photographic accuracy, Ndukauba’s signature style that involves the use of vibrant, non-traditional colour patches to explore the mental state and feelings of her subjects is an artistic statement mirroring a distinct style that’s simple yet inimitable.
