Nigerian artist Joshua Adokuru never meant to enter the art world seriously. After enrolling at the National Open University of Nigeria, he chose computer science as his primary focus and believed art would forever remain just a hobby for him. However, art had other ideas.
While looking to find a creative outlet, Adokuru became interested in hyper-realism drawings back in 2017. He realized he was quite good at it, and the word soon got out about his exceptional artworks. Soon, he was asked to do his first commission work, which made him realize that art could become a career for him after all.
Since then, Adokuru experimented with various mediums but string art was the thing that attracted him the most. He became proficient in creating impressive and unique string portraits that quickly became a hit in the art world.
In a recent chat with Colossal, Adokuru revealed that most of his portraits are inspired by his family and friends. He starts the process by making a sketch on a piece of wood and then starts building facial features using threads of wool. His works are unique not only because of the material he uses but also his choice of colors. He always uses blue strings for the skin, believing it gives his portraits “a feeling of peace, a feeling of serenity.”
Nowadays, his works tour the world and have been exhibited in several major cities in the world, including New York. Check out more of them below.
