Nikki, as she is so often called, hailed from Nigeria, West Africa where she graduated as an artist with honors at the prestigious College of Education in 1986. She majored in textile design and her experience and apprenticeship with internationally acclaimed artist like Abiola Akintola has truly made her develop her style into 3 dimensional shapes and figures. Her early childhood as an artist began at age 12 when she used to help her mother in the family business of African fabrics and textile. Nikki learned the art of tie and dye using the local colors available with a lot of trial and error. As a resident of Chicago, she goes from one fabric store to another to pick materials suitable for each project, while embedding other materials like copper and other flexible metals to make her statement. Most of her subject matters revolves around families, romance, and spirituality. Nikki asserts that "An Artist creates the work of art, but when the art assumes the life of its own, it becomes independent of the artist.”
