Ngadi Smart is a Sierra Leonean visual artist and designer based between London, U.K and Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Her practice comprises illustration, photography and design. She also works as a mixed media artist, primarily in the form of collage art.
In her illustration work, she is motivated by the representation of minorities, highlighting cultural identity, racial discrimination, and themes of feminism and gender roles. She likes to deconstruct mainstream society’s preconceived views of what the definitions of “normal”, “beautiful”, and “right” are. She has illustrated for The Atlantic, Time Out London, Eastpak, and The Guardian, as well as for publishing houses such as Penguin’s Riverhead Books in NYC and London’s Faber’s Children.
Her designs and illustrations celebrate colours and the lack of physical and mental boundaries. Her photographs often portray subjects that take simply engulf the viewers with their personal stories. One thing’s for sure: with just a simple glance at any work signed by visual artist and photographer Ngadi Smart, one ventures to exciting spaces celebrating cultural heritage, diversity and femininity.
In her photography, her focus is documenting cultures, subcultures and intimacy. Her work often speaks on how people self-identify and choose to present themselves in front of the lens. Recently, she has also been interested in documenting Black sensuality and culture from an African point of view. She aims to show as many representations of African people as possible and what it means to be African. Her photography has been published on CNN, British Journal of Photography, Vogue Italia, Atmos Magazine, and I.D Magazine.
