Before the confidence
I kept drawing.
Growing up around talented artists, many of them friends, I sometimes felt behind. I could draw from a reference, but memory was harder. I kept drawing before I had the confidence or the words to explain why.
Krad / The person behind the house
I kept
drawing.
I’m Krad, a Nigerian multidisciplinary artist based in Helsinki. KRKHouse is the world I’m building around art, sound and the things I choose to keep.
Helsinki · Lagos
The Wilsons / Ages nine & ten
A world of my own.
At nine or ten, in primary school, I began a comic called The Wilsons — my own version of The Simpsons or Family Guy. I needed a way to draw its characters and tell their stories. I wasn’t trying to find a signature style. I was trying to build a world.
2021
From a comic to a visual language
Something heard. Something seen.
In 2021, another artist inspired me to transform that comic style into a more distinct visual language. Different sounds, genres and listening experiences became starting points. Exaggerated faces, distorted figures and layered colour became a way to express what I heard.
Listen in Drive ↗
People, place & memory
More than music.
The work moved into a broader idea of noise: people, places, memory and experience. I’m interested in how different entities occupy shared spaces, overlap and change one another. Lagos informs that perspective through its density, movement and contradictions. The work isn’t limited to a literal depiction of the city.
An ongoing practice
A house that keeps changing.
Helsinki brings different rhythms and encounters. Both places shape what I notice and remember. The visual language stays connected to the comic that started it, but it can keep changing. KRKHouse brings that ongoing practice together with sound and curation.
The thinking behind the work
Notes on the practice +
My work began with a comic I created as a child. Over time, the visual language I developed for that fictional world became a way of expressing music, and eventually something broader: the noise of people, places, memory and experience. Through distorted figures, exaggerated faces, bold outlines and layered colour, I explore how different entities navigate through noise, overlap with one another and shape the worlds they inhabit. My practice continues to evolve through observation, experimentation and my changing relationship with the places I live.
Let’s talk.
Get in touch about artwork, exhibitions, commissions, collaborations or a creative project. If something here resonates with you, I’d like to hear about it.
officialkrad@gmail.com ↗