Chidi Nwaubani

Multidisciplinary Artist • Product Designer ◦ Founder — @lootynft ◦ My Linktree:

[Chidi Nwaubani @Mr_Chids]

If a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound? In the digital collage series If a Tree Falls..., this question shifts from a philosophical riddle to an interrogation of historical trauma. The early 20th-century photographic archives that dictate the study of Mbari are fundamentally deconstructed and reclaimed. This work forcefully confronts a jarring paradox: the very forces responsible for the erasure of Igbo cultural continuity are the same entities responsible for collecting and housing its remnants today. By removing the human figures from these colonial records, the pieces leave behind stark, poignant voids prompting the viewer to ask whether our understanding of this heritage would even exist today if it hadn’t been archived by the ones who disrupted it.

Yet, out of these heavy, silent archives, a powerful act of resistance emerges. In place of what was stolen, the compositions introduce recurring, vibrant motifs inspired by traditional Uli patterns the sacred designs that once adorned the exteriors of Mbari houses. The Uli motifs' bold geometry breaks past the structural boundaries of the frames, actively bleeding onto and transforming the surrounding walls. By expanding outward, the artwork refuses to stay locked inside the historical frame, bridging the gap between fragmentation and the contemporary to prove that what was meant to be silenced is still making a sound.

[Chidi Nwaubani @Mr_Chids]

@fiddlee_dee_dee I was thinking the same thing!

[.ART Registry @Art_Domains]

"Technology acts as the hammer that breaks the glass of the museum. Art is what re-animates that data."

@Mr_Chids of @LootyNFT (https://t.co/68WBcxCtEm) on digital restitution, colonial archives, and a borderless Meta-Museum. Full interview on the .ART blog.

https://t.co/UoSTKO2DQS

[Chidi Nwaubani @Mr_Chids]

@MaxAirLtd Dear Customer Service Team

I am writing regarding an economy ticket I purchased on your website for a flight today at 4:20 PM from Port Harcourt to Abuja.

Although the payment has been successfully deducted from my bank account, I have not yet received my ticket.

[ART & VAULT @ARTANDVAULT]

Can technology become a form of cultural restitution?

Artist Chidi Nwaubani (@Mr_Chids) on digitally reclaiming the Benin Bronzes from the @britishmuseum—and what he calls “cultural continuation.”

From ART VOICES. Full conversation now available.

[ART & VAULT @ARTANDVAULT]

Great question. In the conversation Chidi described the LiDAR scans as the starting point, pure geometry that becomes a new canvas. The ‘cultural continuation’ happens in what he builds on top of that scan (new work, narrative, access outside the museum walls) rather than embedding full institutional provenance metadata inside the model itself.
@Mr_Chids can speak more accurately to the technical side if he’d like to add.

[ART & VAULT @ARTANDVAULT]

Who gets to call something stolen?

Art heists are having another cultural moment. @artnews reports an extraordinary eight-hour theft in Italy, while Art in America asks why we remain so fascinated by stealing art.

But Chidi Nwaubani’s (@Mr_Chids) LOOTY turns the premise inside out.

Its “digital heists” reclaim culturally contested objects held in Western museums not by removing them, but by scanning and digitally repatriating them.

It raises the more difficult question: if an object entered a collection through looting, where does the theft actually begin?

We explored this with Chidi on ART VOICES.

↓

[Chidi Nwaubani @Mr_Chids]

@jaimintf @appllamaio Paywall

[Chidi Nwaubani @Mr_Chids]

@TushitGargg Hello 🙌🙌🙌 https://t.co/4tvO8rD59A

[Chidi Nwaubani @Mr_Chids]

@yahyavision 🤮🤮🤮

[Chidi Nwaubani @Mr_Chids]

@tanxdesigns @X 👋👋👋 https://t.co/4tvO8rD59A

[.ART Registry @Art_Domains]

ART VOICES. Every Thursday, artists & art marker participants say what they actually mean. No scripts, no PR speak, no rehearsals. Just live conversations that go where they go.

"The galleries are vultures. You don't need a gallery. You can just make great art."

Hosted by @Elena_Zavelev & @FARRAHXYZ. Presented in partnership @artandvault x @thehugxyz.

Past guests: @AnnieSpalter @Mr_Chids @GrantYun2 @temp_projects @gretchenandrew & others!

Sign up via link in comments!

[Chidi Nwaubani @Mr_Chids]

I think this is great for them👏 aligning more closely with the essence of the company, or at least how it has evolved. It's not an environment meant for deliberately forming relationships or finding love unexpectedly.But more so, Tinder has become a brash and soulless place for meaningless hookups.

[Chidi Nwaubani @Mr_Chids]

@kamalchas Ecom

[Chidi Nwaubani @Mr_Chids]

@OpeyemiDrift Check your DM

[Chidi Nwaubani @Mr_Chids]

"AI music has no soul."

Yes, AI music has no soul because you didn't put it there.

So many people are rushing to create but don't understand that creativity is a process.

[ART & VAULT @ARTANDVAULT]

Art Voices Episode 3
Is Art Changing or Are We?

✨ Featuring @GrantYun2 & @Mr_Chids

🎙️ Hosted by
Elena Zavelev @Elena_Zavelev
Farrah Carbonell @FARRAHXYZ

Presented by @ARTANDVAULT × @theHUGart × @Art_Domains

▶️ Watch the replay below.

[.ART Registry @Art_Domains]

One artist walked into the British Museum dressed for a heist. The other was studying for medical school and couldn't afford canvases.

Both found their way into art through digital tools, and both are rewriting the rules.

New Art Voices with @GrantYun2 & @Mr_Chids <3

[ART & VAULT @ARTANDVAULT]

The next chapter of art won’t be written by one person.

It will emerge through conversations between artists, curators, collectors, technologists, and writers willing to question what comes next.

That’s what we’re building with ART VOICES.

Watch live on X or YouTube
Subscribe for the full archive.

@annespalter
@gretchenandrew
@temp_projects
@GrantYun2
@Mr_Chids
@postanika
@UBERMORGEN_COM
@batsoupyum
@musicalnetta
@JustinGilanyi
@niceaunties
@ClaireSilver

Hosted by:
Elena Zavelev
Lead Growth at HUG, Faculty at @SothebysInst

Farrah Carbonell (@FARRAHXYZ)
Founder & Artistic Director, ART & VAULT

Presented by: @ARTANDVAULT x @theHUGart x @Art_Domains

[ART & VAULT @ARTANDVAULT]

ART VOICES | EPISODE 3

Is Art Changing—or Are We?

What happens when technology, institutions, and culture evolve at the same time?

Join us for a live conversation with Grant Yun and Chidi Nwaubani as we explore how technological change, patronage, collecting, institutions, and events like Art Basel are reshaping the contemporary art ecosystem and what that means for artists, collectors, and culture.

✨ Featuring
Grant Yun (@GrantYun2)
Chidi Nwaubani (@Mr_Chids)

🎙️ Hosted by
@Elena_Zavelev
Head of Growth & Development, HUG | Faculty, @SothebysInst

@FARRAHXYZ
Founder & Artistic Director, @ARTANDVAULT

Presented by @ARTANDVAULT × @theHUGart × @Art_Domains

🗓️ Thursday, July 2
🕚 11:00 AM ET | 8:00 AM PT | 5:00 PM CEST

📺 Live on X, YouTube & LinkedIn

Join us live ↓

[Chidi Nwaubani @Mr_Chids]

@yahyavision https://t.co/4tvO8rD59A hit me up