Adekunle Gold’s guide to his vibrant hometown of Lagos

While he may now be traveling the world to perform, Adekunle’s home city of Lagos is where everything began. As a child, he grew up in a creative household with an artist father and sang in his local church choir. He then went on to study at art school which led to his time as a graphic designer, earning him the moniker by his online followers as the « King of Photoshop » thanks to his witty memes merging comical poses of himself with celebrities like Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian and even the Mona Lisa.

Adekunle’s childhood was filled with weekends at Bar Beach (now redeveloped as a luxurious urban waterfront district) and Apapa Amusement Park. School trips took him to cultural sites like the National Theatre and the National Museum Onikan to learn about Nigerian history and culture. Creativity came to him early though, as he learned how to paint as a young boy from his father. “As a kid, I was very lucky growing up with an artist father who sculptured, painted, and made ceramics,” he explained on a video call from Lagos. “I learned from him at home about all the greats in art history from Picasso to Michelangelo, and ironically, he also taught me in secondary school as he was also my Fine Art teacher, although it was impossible to get his attention for the work I did there,” he says with a laugh. « Even though as a kid, I was encouraged by him to make as he did, I still didn’t think that I would take up art beyond secondary school as I had my sights set on becoming a lawyer. I did, however, end up studying art and design and majoring in graphics at Lagos State Polytechnic. It was there that I immersed myself in everything from textiles to graphics, painting to ceramics and sculpture but my love for graphics blossomed as I enjoyed coming up with ideas for communicating this way as far back as 2004 and which I continue developing today.”