When crown is burden, adornment

Pieces like Butterflies Are Not in My Belly and The Right Angle capture the subtle emotions of attraction and first encounters, while The Shitty Shot and Cheese for Cheeks highlight the realities of dating culture and transactional relationships. In What To Do and The First Settings, the artist explores emotional conflict and the importance of recognizing red flags early. The exhibition also dwells on deeper societal themes such as My Sister, which reflects on family relationships and reconciliation, while The Bread Winner addresses the pressures placed on individuals expected to provide for others—a reality many Nigerians face daily.

With bold colours and expressive figures, Imini creates works that are both personal and widely relatable. The Red Crown engages viewers to reflect on their own experiences, choices and growth.

According to Imini, he tells stories through his paintings, inspired by his own experiences and the experiences of others. “I listen to people’s stories friends, family, and those around him and expresse them through my art. I use bright colours to show the beauty, love, and connection within African communities. My work reflects how people relate with each other and the warmth in their everyday lives.

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“I enjoy painting young people, capturing their different personalities and the realities of youth. Through my work, I explore and challenge different ideas in art. I work with oil paint on canvas,” he noted.

Curator of the exhibition, Chief Jeff Ajueshi, described The Red Crown, as a bold and introspective body of work that explores identity, youth, emotional growth, and the complexities of modern relationships. He identified the red crown—recurring throughout the exhibition—as both symbol and declaration, as well as represents the character we grow into, the personality shaped through lived experience, and the confidence we must learn to embody, even when it defies expectation.

“For Imini, the red crown does not signify traditional notions of royalty. Instead, it speaks to self-awareness, emotional maturity, and the courage to stand firmly in one’s truth. As youth transition into adulthood, new traits surface—some sharp, others radiant. The crown evolves alongside us. Whether flame-like, uneven, or unconventional, it demands to be worn boldly. The exhibition unfolds through a series of deeply personal yet socially reflective works,” he added.

A dominant element in the body of work is the recurring motif of the “red hair crown”—a conceptual and visual device that functions as both burden and adornment to the figures captured in the paintings.

Without doubt, The Red Crown evokes passion, vulnerability, tension, and transformation. Some of the images depict themes of love, rejection, self-awareness, and expectation. Works such as The First Settings and The Bread Winner reveal the pressures of social perception and responsibility, while My Sister introduces a quieter register of familial longing and reconciliation. “Through these narratives, Imini positions youth not as a passive stage, but as an active site of emotional complexity and self-definition,” Rodney Asikhia of TAAG Gallery, said in the exhibition brochure.

The Benue state-born self-taught artist was raised in Suleja on the outskirts of Abuja, and his artistic formation emerges from early experiments with cartoons and observational drawing. Among exhibits on display include Butterflies are not in my belly (68 x 48 inches), The right angle (22 x 22 inches), The shitty shot (68 x 48 inches), Cheese for cheeks (80 x 85 inches), What to do, the first settings (68 x 110 inches), My Sister (68 x 48 inches) and The Bread Winner (68 x 48 inches). The exhibition will run till April 12.