Ugochukwu Paul Nnaji
Ugochukwu Paul Nnaji is a 19-year-old Law student at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He is primarily a digital illustrator to whom art is a means of self-expression and a science to be explored.
He does paintings in various styles from more painterly to graphic styles, but his work mainly centres around elevating real-life phenomena, objects and situations for the purpose of conveying a social message or a past experience in order to inspire and improve the lives of those around him for the better.
Tamed – This painting depicts the most insidious power-play binding Nigerians to a fate of bad leadership; the ruse of & ‘respect’. Depicted by the background characters, from childhood, Nigerians are put in the same shackles and uniforms of ‘respect, which is just completely stifling one’s agency and will to obey those of any superior. Shown by the older foreground character, we grow in these same uniforms and shackles that have dulled our power of independent critical thinking over time such that even when the shackles break, our minds are still bound and we don’t resist when bullied by those ‘in power’.