Art in Lagos: 9 Game Changers & Alternative Voices

The Nigerian artistic landscape is evolving – meet the people, study the artworks, and step inside the spaces that are changing the game and unlocking new opportunities for Lagos' creative community.

Artist and gallerist Nike Davies-Okundaye
Nike Davies-Okundaye is a Nigerian batik and Adire textile artist. She is known for reviving and sustaining traditional craft practices in art, and is the founder and director of four art centres in Nigeria that offer free training to over 150 young artists in visual, musical and performing arts. Her gallery in Lagos, the Nike Centre for Art and Culture, is a standing testament to her efforts.

Artist Nengi Omuku
From her studio in Lagos, (a converted lawyers office), Nengi Omuku creates work that focuses on the body and how it plays a part in identity and difference. Her paintings employ metaphors and themes on race, identity mental journeying and mutual belonging, usually manifesting as anthropomorphic forms positioned in surreal landscapes.

“We’re not only focused on what is happening immediately around us, we are looking out to the world.”
Nengi Omuku

Artist Victor Ehikhamenor
Born in Edo State, Nigeria, Victor Ehikhamenor is a multi-faceted artist who lives and works between Lagos and Maryland, USA. Recognised as one of Nigeria's preeminent contemporary artists, Victor's practice encompasses painting, drawing, photography, sculpture and installation, as well as unique perforated works on paper.

Victor Ehikamenor draws inspiration from the dual aesthetic and spiritual traditions which infused his upbringing, using imagery and symbolism from both Edo traditional religion and Catholicism.

"The contemporary art scene in Nigeria is buoyant, it's flourishing. I feel a sense of community."
Victor Ehikamenor

Curator and gallerist Adenrele Sonariwo
Adenrele Sonariwo is a Nigerian art curator, and the founder of Rele Art Gallery, Lagos. Adenrele was the lead curator of the first Nigerian pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017.

Artist Ayobola Kekere-Ekun
The artist behind this work is Ayobola Kekere-Ekun. The exhibition, Resilient Lines, was hosted at Rele Gallery in 2019.

The title Resilient Lines is intended to encapsulate the spirit and complexity of femininity and womanhood across lineages, as well as reference the usage of linear and multilinear lines prominent in Kekere-Ekun’s artistic output.

Kekere-Ekun creates predominantly with a ‘quilling’ technique, in which paper materials are stripped and manipulated to create textured, two-dimensional forms.

Quilling has roots stemming as far back as the 15th century, when it served mostly decorative purposes. The medium has since progressed, finding mainstream relevance and success in the works of contemporary artists.

Art Director and designer Daniel Obasi
Daniel Obasi is a Nigerian art director and designer. He is the co-founder of 16/16, a dual concept art gallery and boutique residence on Victoria Island, Lagos. He feels that many young Nigerian creatives are defined by their DIY spirit and self-starter mentality.

Curator Oyinkan Dada
Oyinkan Dada is an independent curator. Amongst other exhibitions she co-curated ROOTS Volume 1: “Rock, War & Funk”, an exhibition at Lagos' Whitespace gallery, which examined West Africa’s rich musical history, and specifically Nigeria's pre and post-wartime music between 1960 – 1979.

ROOTS Volume 1: “Rock, War & Funk” explores how a climate of political upheaval and war impacted the nation's musical heritage during that time, and it's lasting impact on generations.

The years 1960 – 1979 are important in the past and present of Nigeria’s socio-political history, as they formed the first-decade before, during and after Nigeria's first oil boom.

The exhibition displayed early markers of today’s metropolitan lifestyle, including the re-imagination of a '60s suburban teenager’s bedroom, as well as other pop-culture emblems from the era.

Musician and publisher Teni 'Teezee' Zaccheaus
Teezee is a co-founder of The NATIVE, the Lagos-based publishing platform which presented ROOTS Volume 1: “Rock, War & Funk”.