Akwi Nji

Joined Artfinder: April 2025

Artworks for sale: 22

United States

Updates from Akwi Nji's studio

  • You are enough

    You are enough

    This was the very first set of prints I offered and it was of my signature painting "Vibe With Me" from a collection titled ENUF -- the original measures 48x48x1.5 inches and is in a private collection. This was 2023 and the original was on view at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. The painting was also used as the cover for my spoken word album. It brought me so much joy to offer this painting as prints to my community of collectors!

    22 May 2025
    Blank Slates

    Blank Slates

    There’s something equally intimidating and sacred about a blank canvas. On this day, I was preparing four of them—commissions for a commercial space— and honestly, it was fun. Fun to imagine how these pieces would live out in the world, not just in a gallery or home, but in a space where people move through their daily lives. A space built for connection, ideas, and forward motion. Also where a lot of employees would be doing serious work (the entire building was the fraud prevention team for a financial institution). Creating for a commercial building offered a new kind of energy— intentional, collaborative, expansive. Every piece starts here—with light pouring in, my hands steady, and the joy of making something meant to bring people joy, connect them, or help them breathe a little easier.

    22 May 2025
    Blank Slates

    Blank Slates

    There’s something equally intimidating and sacred about a blank canvas. On this day, I was preparing four of them—commissions for a commercial space— and honestly, it was fun. Fun to imagine how these pieces would live out in the world, not just in a gallery or home, but in a space where people move through their daily lives. A space built for connection, ideas, and forward motion. Also where a lot of employees would be doing serious work (the entire building was the fraud prevention team for a financial institution). Creating for a commercial building offered a new kind of energy— intentional, collaborative, expansive. Every piece starts here—with light pouring in, my hands steady, and the joy of making something meant to bring people joy, connect them, or help them breathe a little easier.

    22 May 2025
    Inviting play into the mix

    Inviting play into the mix

    This is the part of the process I live for—where the work becomes play, and the pressure dissolves into joy. Creating isn’t always tidy or quiet or still. Sometimes it’s laughter mid-stroke, bare feet on studio floors, and getting lost in the rhythm of movement and color. In this moment, I’m not thinking about what comes next. I’m just here—connected, present, alive in the making. And I happen to be wearing a thrifted flannel shirt that my daughter gave me because she didn't want it. It's been my favorite studio "comfort shirt" for four years now (shhhhh....don't tell her she missed out on an amazing shirt). This is what freedom feels like. And this is where art begins. I hope my paintings, when they find their way to you, are infused with the joy of moments like this in my studio.

    22 May 2025
    The Brick-By-Brick of Becoming

    The Brick-By-Brick of Becoming

    In the quiet rhythm of my studio, surrounded by natural light and the textures of brick and canvas, I feel most at home. In my favorite overalls and paint-splattered Chuck Taylors, I move between pieces with a kind of focused ease—listening more than forcing, allowing more than controlling. This space is where concept meets color, where memory becomes motion. Every brushstroke is an offering. It’s here, in the stillness and the mess of creation, that I explore the stories we carry and the ones we’re still learning to tell.

    22 May 2025
    When you know

    When you know

    When I completed this painting I knew it was a winner! Sometimes that feeling just overtakes you and it's delight, joy, celebration. And then you just hope that painting finds its way home to the just-right person who'll love it, too!

    22 May 2025