Ngadi Smart

Illustrator and Visual Artist

Ngadi Smart is a West African Artist and Designer, with a focus in Illustration and Photography.

Having lived and studied Art & Design in the U.K, Canada (at OCADU) and the Ivory Coast, she has also always had an interest in a broad spectrum of cultures and subcultures, as well as a love for connecting with people from all over the world.  

That, combined with a love for the Arts, Fashion, and a lifelong obsession with documenting everything around her, has propelled her to start projects such as "The EyeMuse Project", a Photography and Illustration global project which aims to capture first hand the trends, culture and lifestyle of a city through the subject's intimate setting of choice. 

Therefore, her work has long been focused on people's expression of Identity, notably self-Identity through Fashion, and as of late, Black sensuality from an African lens and point of view, always aiming to show as many representations of African people, and what it means to be African.

She has also recently photographed a series for the upcoming Ivorian edition of Nice Magazine (which is a Young African Photographers' collaborative magazine spearheaded by Photographer Flurina Rothenberger) on the social constructions surrounding African male and female identities. You can now catch her work published in MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora, an anthology celebrating the work of 100 Women Photographers of African Descent, South Africa’s Livingspace Magazine (September 2018 Issue), and Gay Times Magazine (October 2018 issue).

Press

• AFROPUNK: Rad creative of the day: Illustrator/photographer Ngadi Smart of Sierra Leone uses her Art to intimately meld Cultures.

• AFRIQUE DESIGN DAILY: Ngadi Smart et ses Muses.

• NGOZI COLE: 6 Inspiring African Photographers You Should Know

• TRUE AFRICA: Ngadi Smart, the artist turning Abidjan street style and black sexuality into Pop Art

• CNN: Here's what African millennials are really concerned about

• BETWEEN 10AND5: Meet the ballsy African illustrators advocating sex positivity

• ADUNA WORLD: Ngadi Smart: Identity, Feminism & Sexuality from an African lens

• WORLD PRESS PHOTO: Four To Follow #6

• NEUE ZÜRCHER ZEITUNG: These are the faces of Africa

• VOGUE : The World as Seen by Black Female Photographers

• NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: These Black Women are Carving out a Place in History

• MATADOR NETWORK: These 14 women are shattering stereotypes of Africa one photo at a time

• BUZZFEED: Here’s A Mesmerizing Look Into The Creative Minds Of Black Women

• AFRICAN DIGITAL ART: Ngadi: Sierra Leonean Illustrator and Digital Artist

• MASTERCARD FOUNDATION: Hope, Energy, and Ingenuity: Voices of African Youth

• LIVINGSPACE MAGAZINE (PRINT) : Ngadi Smart, Freedom of expression

• PHOTOVILLE: Foreseen: New Narratives from the African Photojournalism Database

• BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Ghana’s first photo festival opens 12-21 September

• GAY TIMES MAGAZINE (PRINT) : Ngadi Smart, the West African Artist on looking at like through a lens of sexual and gender ambiguity

Exhibitions

• THE NICE MAGAZINE LAUNCH: 22nd February 2018, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

• AN AFRICAN LENS EXHIBIT, YALE UNIVERSITY: As part of Africa Salon, Yale’s Contemporary African Arts and Culture Festival: 6th - 23rd April 2018, Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, Connecticut, USA

• LUMIX FESTIVAL FOR YOUNG PHOTOJOURNALISM: 20th - 24th June 2018, Hannover, Germany

• FORESEEN: NEW NARRATIVES FROM THE AFRICAN PHOTOJOURNALISM DATABASE: 13th - 23rd September 2018, at Photoville Festival, Brooklyn, New York City, USA

• FORESEEN: NEW NARRATIVES FROM THE AFRICAN PHOTOJOURNALISM DATABASE: 12-21 September 2018, Nuku Photo Festival, Accra, Ghana

Awards

CAPIC's Rodeo 4 Competition Top 50 images  (The Canadian Association of Professional Image Creators)