Njideka Akunyili Crosby Wants to Take it Slow, Despite Her Rapid Rise

The artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby in her East Los Angeles studio, where she prepared to open a major show at Zwirner gallery.Erik Carter for The New York Times

The artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby in her East Los Angeles studio, where she prepared to open a major show at Zwirner gallery.Erik Carter for The New York Times

LOS ANGELES — To listen to Njideka Akunyili Crosby talk about the lengths to which she’ll go in researching the scientific classification of plants to depict in one of her paintings — Madagascar Jasmine? Safari Sunset? — is to begin to understand this Nigerian artist’s slow and exacting approach, as well as why her new exhibition, inaugurating David Zwirner’s first Los Angeles gallery on May 23, feels like a significant art world event.

“I had a clear idea of what I wanted the plant to do,” said Akunyili Crosby, 40, in a recent conversation at her East Los Angeles studio, discussing the process behind the self-portrait, “Still You Bloom in This Land of No Gardens,” which features her in patterned pants, holding her youngest child on the porch surrounded by lush greenery.

Read more at NY Times.