Njideka Akunyili started college planning to be a doctor, but left as an artist and is now billed as one of New York's most promising new talents. 

The 29-year-old Nigerian-born artist has just completed a year-long residence with the prestigious Studio Harlem in New York. 

All five of her works sold in the first half hour of this year's Art Basel, the world's top fair for modern and contemporary art and African style magazine Arise described her as "fast becoming the art world's newest star." 

Akunyili was born and brought up in the small town of New Haven in Enugu, Nigeria, and moved to the United States for college at the age of 16. 

Her work, a combination of drawing, painting, printmaking and collage, combines Nigerian and American culture. 

"Nigeria is almost a third character in my work," she said. "A lot of my work is about investigating my love for Nigeria and my life in America. 

"I met my husband at college and there was some anxiety that if I married outside my culture I would lose my identity, but there is a space in my work where these things come together." 

Akunyili is hoping to help change attitudes to art in Nigeria, where she said appreciation is growing slowly. 

"If I hadn't left Nigeria, I wouldn't be an artist, I would be a doctor," she said. "When I told my parents I wanted to be an artist, they couldn't get their heads around why an educated person who went to college in America would want to be an artist. 
What province is that in?
Akunyili was born and brought up in the small town of New Haven in Enugu