“My work is born out of the desire to stir up conversations on issues around Social values, History, mental Health, and the subconscious interaction between man and his environment.”

Nwaneri Kelechi Charles was born in 1994 in Nigeria and currently lives and works in Lagos, Nigeria.

Inspired by Pencil Artists such as Kelvin Okafor, Arinze Stanley, and Ken Nwadiogbu, he initially focused on Pencil Realism and has evolved introducing other mediums such as acrylic paints, collages, watercolors, and oil paints.

Kelechi’s style stands between Photorealism, Surrealism, and Postmodernism but perfectly fits into what he defined Contemporary Surrealism. Inspired by events happening in his daily environment, he creates art with surrealistic imagery. A major characteristic of his work is the use of West-African Iconography, mystical, metaphysical, allegorical concepts, and the Black Hybrid Figure, inspired by the idea of scars and African Tribal Marks.
As he says “A major feature of my work is the “Hybrid (Black) Figure inspired by the idea of scars and tribal marks. These figures are usually embedded with symbols (including mainly Adinkra, Uli, Nsibidi symbols), Automatic Lines, and Adire patterns using primarily Pencils and Charcoal sticks.”

In 2020, he was the resident artist at AKKA Project, Venice, Italy.