Naija Pop Art: Drofu's Lagos Cool Kids

All images courtesy of Drofu

Drofu is a rising platform for digital artists in Nigeria who recently reached out to us with their vibrant interpretations of Lagos' cool kids. Founded late last year by illustrator Nnamdi Nwoha, the online hub began as a way for Nwoha to distribute his art without the hassle of dealing with the gallery system. "I started Drofu as a vehicle for publishing my art," he told us over e-mail. "Instead of putting up pieces on canvas in galleries that aren't easy to access, we distribute the art as free wallpapers on our website and as graphic prints on tee shirts."

Nwoha's images experiment with pop culture elements that reference his own Nigerian background in addition to the whole gamut of media content he consumed growing up. "What I find myself doing is creating art that fuses Nigerian culture, fashion and social archetypes with similar elements from other cultures," he said. "Japanese culture is a personal favorite, so I'm currently finding fun ways to blend Japanese visual elements with Nigerian ones. "

As a player in Nigeria's digital art scene, Nwoha notes that members of the emerging community have become more open to posting and sharing their work online. "A lot of the shared work currently seems to be themed around Nigerian music since they do a lot of artiste portraits."

For his latest series, Dressed To Kill, Nwoha crafted a series of illustrations featuring stylish young men and women fusing 21st century cool with traditional Nigerian flair. Nwoha hopes the work his collective produces will resonate with the average Nigerian in the same way that Nigerian music has. "The energy, the fashion, the color, the entrepreneurship, the hustle. These are all core aspects of the contemporary Nigerian culture that I see and that I want to reproduce with Drofu."

Keep up with new work from Drofu on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.