Somerset House: Ken Nwadiogbu’s Artistry Illuminates Netflix’s Top Boy

Ken Nwadiogbu’s contemporealism left fresh air at the Embankment Galleries at Somerset House with the Portrait of a Top Boy exhibition for the Netflix movie Top Boy, alongside 15 other artistes.

Curated by the creative Ronan Mckenzie, The Portrait of a Top Boy is an intermission film commissioned with Netflix for the campaign of the final season of Top Boy, aimed to portray the show’s main characters.

Assigned to make a portrait of Stef, one of the main cast, who has always lived in a paradoxical world, Ken meticulously cut out and realistically rendered Stef’s eyes to serve as a bridge to connect the viewer to the energy he embodies. He also amplified his essence within the painting.

Nwadiogbu is a Nigerian-born London-based multidisciplinary artiste. He recently graduated with a Masters in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London.

His works have been in notable exhibitions, including the Royal Academy of Arts, Scope Miami, Prizm Art Fair, and Art X Lagos.

He has collaborated with big brands like Martell, Netflix, MacMillan, etc.

Nwadiogbu is drawn to creating significant works to increase the visibility and, therefore, the status of his subjects, often migrants to wherever they reside or facing adverse circumstances, much like Stefan.

According to the artiste, “In a broader context, the idea of self – be it mine or the other – as seen in my work often denote our respective experiences of identity and representation, migration and displacement, and socio-political crisis.”

Nwadiogbu deploys a stream-of-consciousness narrative style such that amidst the broader image of his work, there is always a substantive portion that relays the true visage of the subject to the viewer.

This portion is usually a recurring motif of the eye or an entire face embedded within a work.

The viewer’s interaction with these works often edges them into their stream of consciousness, leading to the realisation of an idea outside the precepts of his work but one familiar to the viewer.

“Much like the choices we make in relationships and experiences, this painting delves into the choices Stef made after losing his older brother,” says the painter.

Indeed, Nwadiogbu believes that this adds depth and layers of meaning to the artwork.