ARTIST ON POINT

Her life-size artworks are rendered with a simple ballpoint pen – and the world is sitting up and taking notice

- ROBYN LUCAS

SHE’S always had a knack for art. From the moment she could hold a crayon in her tiny hand, she would draw on the paper her mother always had on hand for her.

As she grew older she realised art was the passion she wanted to pursue – and so she did, with a set of ballpoint pens in her talented fingers.

Jacqueline Suowari’s breathtaking body of work has been described as exciting, sublime and vibrant by critics and has made her one of her native Nigeria’s most successful artists.

She’s had solo exhibitions in New York and Miami and recently launched her first touring exhibition, Now I Wear Myself, in Nigeria with the aim of destigmatising topics such as mental health which is taboo in the West African country.

Abuja, the Nigerian city she lives in, has high suicide rates, Jacqueline (31) says, chatting to YOU from her studio. “My work talks about the fake-care culture happening in our generation. If someone asks how you’re doing they’re not interested in the answer.”

Her art – which is all created with ballpoint pen and is often life-size – is about “looking for those vulnerable expressions” in the faces of the people who pose for her.

One of her favourite paintings is of her friend, Sade. “She looks like a very stylish young lady but her eyes are sad and I used that as a metaphor for mental health and the struggles people face.