The artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby, the daughter of a surgeon and a scientist, was born in 1983 in the small city of Enugu, Nigeria. When her mother won the U.S. green card lottery, it meant that the family’s children could continue their studies in America. Akunyili Crosby went to Swarthmore College and graduated in 2004. In 2011 she was selected as an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum Harlem, where a young Wangechi Mutu mentored her. Using collage and photo-transfer paintings, Akunyili Crosby has since created work about her experience as a Nigerian in the diaspora, pairing images from her hometown with those of her adopted home. This exhibition, curated by the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Hilton Als in collaboration with Akunyili Crosby, takes inspiration from the classic Ghanaian novel The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. The book speaks of the lost promises of the postcolonial African state. In response, Akunyili Crosby displays her own intimate portraits of small children. —Elena Clavarino