The city of Lagos is bursting with enough creative and artistic energy to inspire you. There has been a remarkable presentation of paintings, photographs, films, and other mixed-media installations across the city since October. From the just concluded Art X Lagos, one of the largest art festivals in West Africa, to the African International Film Festival (AFRIFF), an annual film festival that happens in Nigeria, and the ongoing Lagos Photo Festival, there are a host of exciting shows for art and culture enthusiasts.
If you are looking to be inspired by other creatives’ processes or enjoy the offerings of these galleries, fairs, and festivals, here are 3 art shows you mustn’t miss this month.
Courtesy of Art X and Gallery 1957.
Lagos Photo Festival 2023
African Artists’ Foundation presents “Ground State: Fellowship Within The Uncanny” at the 14th edition of Lagos Photo Festival 2023.
With this year’s theme, Ground State – fellowship within the Uncanny, Lagos Photo Festival explores the present moment while thinking of ways to restore, repair, and restitute history mysteries crucial for our survival. The projects for this festival’s edition are challenging our complicity in a culture of desire founded on consumption. It also fosters a fellowship of dynamic spiritual change, a rebirthing of the unimaginable.
For the first time in the festival’s history, the event will be hosted in Cotonou, Ouidah, and Port-Novo in Benin, in addition to Lagos. This geographical expansion offers a wider audience the opportunity to engage with the exceptional works of talented photographers. Some of the exhibiting artists are Arko Datto, Phil Toledo, Maija Tammi, Minne Atairu, Adrian L. Burrell, Candela Paniagua, Derik Lynch and Matthew Thorne, Maheder Haileselassie and so on.
The festival opened on October 25th and will close on December 31st, 2023.
Group Show ‘Wonderland’ at Affinity Gallery
On view at Affinity Gallery is ‘Wonderland’, an exhibition of paintings and mixed media works by Delphine Dénéréaz, Ekene Stanley, Kay Gasei, Terence Maluleke, and Uzo Njoku. This is the first time the exhibiting artists will be showing their work in Nigeria.
Courtesy of Affinity Gallery.
The exhibition, ‘Wonderland’ emphasizes what it means to traverse the world with an open-minded curiosity that allows for the constant questioning of the status quo. The works in this exhibition investigate questions about identity, belonging, community, culture, and our collective histories. The conversations highlighted in this show are creating a wonderland while making safe spaces accessible to all and fostering a spirit of wonder.
The show is open from November 2 to December 16, 2023.
Solo Presentation of ‘Walk Like A Champion’ by Abe Odedina
O’DA Art Gallery presents ‘Walk like a Champion,’ Abe Odedina’s first solo exhibition in Lagos, Nigeria. The presentation is in honour of Otunba Rosalind Morolayo Odedina, the artist’s mother.
Courtesy of O’DA.
Deeply fond of his mother, Odedina reflects on how his mother is the resonant sounding board, confidante, role model, and friend. He says she is the author of him more than anybody else. Through his practice, Odedina embraces figurative work comfortably with abstract concepts. With the works in this exhibition, his philosophies are emphasized to the viewer, starting from his mother.
‘Walk like a Champion,’ Odedina’s first solo exhibition in Nigeria, is open at O’DA from the 28th of October to the 25th of November.
Iyanuoluwa Adenle is a Nigerian art writer, essayist, and poet based in Lagos. She is currently the head writer at Omenai. Adenle has contributed to a number of art publications, including Tender Photo, Art News Africa, Pavillon 54, and Omenai.
