There’s something quietly electric about watching an artist tap into the collective mood of a country. Or at least, the mood of the chronically online.
Anthony Azekwoh, Lagos-based artist, writer, and entrepreneur, has Nigerians glued to their screens with his latest project, The Wedding. By blending humour, fiction, and striking art, Azekwoh has created a cultural event.
Nigerians are not only looking at the paintings; they’re actively debating, interpreting, and even co-writing the story. In a country where weddings are social theatre, Azekwoh has tapped into the drama to remind us that art can be just as relevant to national gist as any blockbuster album or film release.
Who is Anthony Azekwoh?
If you’ve been paying attention to Nigeria’s art scene, Anthony Azekwoh is a name you already know. A contemporary artist with a cult following, his work reimagines African folklore and mythology through digital and physical mediums.
His journey has been defined by change: teaching himself to draw as a child after first writing stories, dropping out of school to pursue his career, and constantly moving between writing, painting, and sculpting.
Technology has been a central part of his practice. Azekwoh believes it has given African artists a louder voice, helping them tell stories that once carried stigma or were easily overlooked. His work replicates traditional techniques while pushing them through digital canvases, often resulting in physical, larger-than-life pieces.
With over 1,200 paintings created in the past nine years, he’s no stranger to reinvention. “The Wedding” is just the latest.
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The Wedding began not with a real commission, but with a fictional one. Azekwoh shared a tongue-in-cheek “artist’s note” describing how he had been hired to paint wedding portraits in Lagos, only for chaos to break loose. Guests walked into his studio bruised, shocked, or teary-eyed. The bridesmaid refused to wipe away her tears. The best man loomed like a giant, complete with a black eye. The maid of honour froze in disbelief.
It’s all there, rendered in Azekwoh’s signature brushstrokes. In his fictional account, the couple rejected the paintings for being “garish,” leaving him to claim them as his own.
That story, laced with humour and profanity, became the perfect narrative frame for the collection. He’s teasing Nigerians with solving the puzzle, and honestly? We’re taking the bait.
Read our interview below:
What inspired you to start “The Wedding”, and why did you choose weddings as the central theme?
Marriage is a battlefield, and the wedding is the beginning of it all. It’s this glorious tapestry of different archetypes all under one roof. There are the people who don’t want to be there, the people who are tired, the people who secretly don’t like you…it’s this beautiful melting pot, and I wanted to depict that.
How do you decide which character or moment in a wedding to paint next?
Oh man, I’m telling a story so there’s a structure and then there’s surprises. So I’m telling it with that in mind. It’s half planned, half serendipity.
The series has the internet in a chokehold. Did you expect this kind of response, especially from Nigerians?
To be trending on the same pages as Odumodu and BBN has been crazy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this. I’m honoured, honestly.
How many works can we expect, and is this leading to something bigger, like an exhibition?
I don’t know, honestly, things are crazy, and life is full of surprises.
The first painting sparked numerous stories online. How does audience interpretation affect your next pieces?
It’s one of those things that I’m honestly trying to avoid. I’ve been really following my own head and heart on this one.
“Amala has finished ma.”
“As how?”
“Sorry ma, but we still have semo—”
“God punish you,” Arike bitterly hissed, and the timid catering staff fled. She turned back to the bride, hunger for both food and lover bringing her to tears. “No babe. No amala. God abeg…”#BridesmaidbyAA https://t.co/Skeic1r10F— Prophetess of The GOA and Arepo✨🦋 (@Xhose_Jude) September 8, 2025
Of all the fan-made stories and memes, Azekwoh tells me that the story about Amala at the wedding was probably the most amusing one. “I’ve seen so many webs and theories, and honestly, it’s been so fun and interesting reading them all.”
How do you balance staying true to your vision while the internet runs wild with narratives?
I’m sticking with the original plan and feeling, and I need to tell these stories. I think that’s what’s driving me. A need to be here and entertain, and also to broaden everyone’s thoughts and feelings on what this could be. So, there’s no balance really, it’s just me, telling the best tale I can, with my fingers crossed that you guys don’t burn me at the stake when you see the {REDACTED}
The responses to The Wedding have been as creative as the paintings themselves. On Twitter and his website, writers and fans have spun stories for each character, adding layers of fiction that blur the line between reality and art.
“I even wrote a story for The Bridesmaid, now I’m waiting for the whole collection so I can complete it,” one user posted. Others confessed heartbreak when they realised their imagined stories weren’t canon, proof of how deeply audiences have invested in Azekwoh’s world.
With The Wedding, Anthony Azekwoh has taken one of Nigeria’s most beloved traditions and reframed it as art, not just to be viewed, but to be argued over, laughed about, and shared online.
In doing so, he’s shown that contemporary Nigerian art can be as much a part of everyday gist as music or reality TV.
