All Nigerians have a hate-love relationship with Danfo buses. On one hand, they get you to where you need to be and you are most likely to meet the most hilarious characters. On the other hand, you can be going somewhere early in the morning in your finest shirt now and Danfo will just help you tear it, or one conductor will conveniently forget to give you your 900 naira change.
Hate them or love them, Danfos are a cultural phenomenon in Lagos. If you close your eyes and try to conjure a picture of Lagos it’ll be impossible to imagine Lagos without the vibrant black and yellow of Danfo buses.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Danfos is how much of a unique and artistic expression it is of its owner’s tastes.
You are most likely to find catchphrases, stickers or illustrations which express the owner’s preferences and beliefs. You are bound to see phrases like ‘God is in control’ or ‘Wabillahi Taofeek’ if the owner is religious. If the owner has a sense of humor then you are bound to see a punchline or two.
You can even tell what their taste in music is, by which artists they chose to advertise with stickers on their windows. We can bet you’d never see a sticker of Osupa and Pasuma on the same bus.
The only thing we might love more than the catchphrases and illustrations themselves would be the unique and creative designs in which they are usually created. Designer studio, Dá Design Studio, inspired by this decided to create a font design, aptly named Danfo STD and we couldn’t love it more.
Left to us we’d print everything in this. Imagine a t-shirt with the catchphrase ‘I can’t come and die’ written in this font?
What we are most excited about, however, is the fact that they are people out there who not only recognize the cultural importance of Danfos to Lagos *side eye to Ambo* but also decided to create something awesome out of it.
You might have seen some pretty amazing things done to African hair, but I bet you’ve never seen anything like this.
This Ivorian artist @laetitiaky does the most amazing things with her hair. My people, you prolly haven’t seen anything like this before!
Not everytime talk about how Wizkid is taking over Africa. Many times, Nigerian artists have smashed records and proved that Nigerians sabi the work.
In November 2016, outstanding artist and daughter to the late iconic Dora Akunyili, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, set a new auction record for her intimate art, ‘Drown’ which sold for $1,092,500-which is over 3 times the initial high estimate.
In the record-breaking ‘Drown’, Njideka created a stunning self-portrait of her husband, Justin.
The painting, which is basically an acrylic, colored pencil and solvent transfer on paper sold for over $1M (N400 million) at Sotheby’s in New York.
She has shown that greatness truly runs in her blood and we couldn’t be more proud of her!
When Brazilian photographer, Vinicius Terra Nova, decided to do a photo series he named, ‘Flores Raras’ (translated as Rare Flowers) with these three sisters, magic was the only expected result.
The twins, Lara and Mara who have albinism slayed this shoot with their elder sister, Sheila.
It’s hard to get over how beautiful they look.
Look at how the twin’s creamy skins glow beautifully against Sheila’s popping dark skin.
They’re giving serious hair goals.
Se them serving artsy vibes in this upside-down shot.
To view more amazing pictures from this shoot, check out Vinicius’ website here.
Featured image credit: Vinicius Terranova
Two weeks ago, a 17 year old Instagram user, Autumn Massaquoi, recreated her self portrait using different different cartoon characters.
This awesomeness lead to the birth of a really brilliant artsy trend across Instagram and Twitter. Here are some of the most awesome pictures from the style challenge hashtag.
1. This blue-haired cartoon character.
2. The Disney version is really cute though.
3. This picture is giving us serious afro goals.
4. See this hijabi slay.
5. All the faces of the beautiful Ariana Grande
6. And Rihanna’s bantu knots.
7. Even Aliyah made the challenge.
8. This person that recreated his portrait using the style of legendary artists.
9. When an original cartoon gets recreated.
10. Another hijabi joined the challenge.
11. When a cartoon character has a really buff afro.
12. And finally, this one is proof that Beyonce can never be ugly in any art form that exists.
That’s what Brooklyn-based Nigerian artist, Olalekan Jeyifous, aimed to achieve with his creative photo series, Shanty Megastructures.
Using a series of 3D visuals, he created a realistic architectural view of Lagos in 2050, with massive tin towers spread across all the popular parts of the city.
According to him, the slums of Lagos are usually left out of developmental projects and are mostly targeted for demolition. By doing this, whatever development that happens in the state mostly favours the rich.
In Shanty Megastructures, he creates an idea where even the famous Makoko canal isn’t left out of the Sci-Fi age.
Although his idea isn’t perfect…
He however partnered with NLE Architects and Zoohaus/Inteligencias Colectivas to create a pollution-free and well-planned Lagos, in a previous project he called Uneven Growth.
More pictures from Olalekan’s project can be viewed here.
Only a few months after serving us greatness with these bad-ass grandmas, Kenyan photographer, Osborne Macharia, is back at it again.
This time, in a pictorial called Kabangu, he tells the fictional story of Kenyan hip-hop grandpas who doubled as security guards in the 1980s.
These artistes were known to mentor younger talents, teaching them social values.
The Kabangu are basically the most bad-ass grandpas we’ve ever seen.
The most amazing part of this project is how Macharia recreated amazing pictures to tell stories of people that have done awesome things in the past.
These grandpas are goals! We so can’t wait to see what Osborne is working on next.
When artsy people try to tell you to find the beauty in everything including a one year old child’s doodling.
When there’s an oil stain on your shirt and your artsy friend says it highlights your skin tone.
We can only imagine the thoughts running through the mind of the photographer who captured the image and how he would caption the picture on Instagram.
1. Abba T. Makama is mostly known as a filmmaker and founder of Osiris; a creative group that creates magical ideas for digital and traditional media.
But personally he considers himself an artist and prefers the label ‘creator’. Born and raised in Jos Plateau State. He went to Hillcrest School Jos and St. Joseph’s College before graduating from SUNY Fredonia N.Y. He also studied film at N.Y.U. Ventures Africa listed him as one of the 15 African creatives to watch for in 2016.
2. While growing up in Jos he attend Hillcrest school and was classmates with Tejumola Komolafe (NaijaBoyz).
They were both the best art students in their class and also best friends. Teju left Nigeria in the early 90’s. The two reconnected in 2006 via Myspace and discovered they both where on the path to becoming filmmakers.
3. His company Osiris has worked with numerous brands.
Directing commercials, digital marketing skits and documentaries for companies like Google, Blackberry, Gtbank Nigerian Breweries etc.
4. In 2010, he and friend/colleague Bolaji Kekere Ekun ( 37th State) created AMEBO at FOUR.
5. In 2010 he wrote, produced and directed the comedy satire on the Nigerian film industry called Direc-toh.
Direc-toh screened at Eko International Film Festival 2010 and won Best Actor at InShort Film Festival 2010.
6. In 2012 he collaborated with fashion designer and close friend Niyi Okuboyejo, to create Party of Minister.
Party of Minister is a satire short film about corrupt African dictators. It screened at the 2016 Black Star Film Festival in Philadelphia.
That same year he also directed a fashion film for acclaimed fashion designer Maki Oh.
7. In 2013 he released QUACKS a sequel to Party of Ministers.
Party of Minister and Quacks were selected for the first Iroko TV online short film festival.
8. In 2014 he was commissioned by Al Jazeera to direct a documentary on the Nigeria Film Industry.
It aired in July 2015 on Al Jazeera world and was well received by key figures in the industry.
9. In 2015 he released a comedy reality TV show, CITY BISHOP, about a journalist from the village of Isoko who explores Lagos city life.
Season 1 aired on SilverBird TV.
10. 2016 will be the release of his first feature length film ‘Green White Green’.
Green White Green is a comedy satire and coming of age story about 3 young boys from the 3 major ethnic group on an adventure to shoot a short film inspired by Nigeria’s history.
11. Abba Makama the painter.
His first solo art exhibition is on February 28th 2016 at the IAMSIGO showroom. Waking hallucinations and sleep paralysis are the inspiration behind the art show.
