LAGOS - MARCH 2025
Ken Nwadiogbu: Memory in Fragments, Identity in Layers
This summer, Nigerian artist Ken Nwadiogbu presents a major solo exhibition in London, offering new works that push the boundaries of figuration, memory, and black identity. Known for his hyperrealistic yet conceptually rich portraits, often marked by cut-out gazes, fragmented figures, and layered storytelling, Ken Nwadiogbu belongs to a generation of Nigerian artists rewriting the visual narrative of Africa through deeply personal, politically conscious work. Initially trained as a civil engineer, he is entirely self-taught, and entirely unafraid to experiment. His art is bold, quiet, haunting, and alive with questions. In this conversation, Ken Nwadiogbu reflects on Lagos, where he was born, but also resistance, memory, collaboration, and the many selves that live beneath the surface of his canvases.
Photography by Morgan Otagburuagu.
LONDON - April 2025
OLIVIA STERLING
THE BITTER Sweetness of LaughteR
THE BITTER Sweetness of LaughteR
In the vibrant, unsettling world of Olivia Sterling, laughter and pain walk hand in hand. Her paintings, with their bright surfaces and flat, confident lines, peel back the comforts of everyday life to reveal the deep, persistent absurdities of race, identity, and oppression.
Photography by Sam Khoury.
LAGOS - MARCH 2025
LAGOS - MARCH 2025
MAZZI ODU
“IN LAGOS, EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE”
“IN LAGOS, EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE”
Writer, cultural critic, and passionate advocate for African creativity, Mazzi Odu is one of the most compelling voices shaping the narrative around fashion, design, and identity on the African continent. Whether through her longform blog Magnus Oculus, her contributions to Vogue and Wallpaper, or her growing work in children’s literature, she consistently shines a light on talent, before the world catches on. We met her in Lagos, where her life, like the city itself, is constantly in motion.
Photography by Morgan Otagburuagu.
LAGOS - MARCH 2025
KEZIAH JONES
“RYTHM is universal”
“RYTHM is universal”
From the streets of London to the cafés of Paris, from Lagos to notebooks filled with fragments, riffs, and visions, Keziah Jones has always been in motion. The inventor of "Blufunk" (a genre where Yoruba rhythms collide with funk, blues, and jazz) the Nigerian-born musician is as much a poet of sound as he is a cartographer of cities, identities, and contradictions. For CITY, he opens up about rhythm as resistance, songwriting as ritual, and Lagos as a chord no one can quite resolve.
Photography by Morgan Otagburuagu.
TOKYO - MAY 2025
PARIS- JULY 2025
Welcome to the new CITY. A magazine not merely about places, but about the invisible threads that bind people to them: the gestures, the silences, the sparks of creation and longing that inhabit every street corner. We believe the soul of a city lives in its detours: in the rhythm of a shortcut, the shimmer of a glance, the grace of an unforeseen encounter. That’s where stories begin, off the map, on the verge.
Here, we chose to work with local teams, those who speak the language of their own landscape: photographers, stylists, and writers who carry their cities beneath their skin. From the restless breath of Lagos to the suspended quiet of Tokyo, from the golden blur of Paris to the electric pulse of London, CITY is a chorus of rooted voices, each echoing outward. Each story was shaped in situ, with the dust and light of its setting still clinging to it. Mika Schneider, the Franco-Japanese model, captured in Tokyo through the eccentric lens of Hanayo. The complex beauty of Lagos, rendered by the keen eye of Morgan Otagburuagu. Las Vegas, seen anew through the prose of writer Ahmed Naji. The cities that inhabit Jean-Paul Goude, drawn like constellations from memory and myth.
This is CITY: global by design, intimate by instinct. Pack light. Stay open.
And above all, remember: “Don’t believe the accuracy of our instructions.
Believe only the caravan’s trace.” (Mahmoud Darwich)*.
And above all, remember: “Don’t believe the accuracy of our instructions.
Believe only the caravan’s trace.” (Mahmoud Darwich)*.
LAGOS - MARCH 2025