Prince Yemisi Shyllon: Championing Nigerian Art

A stylized wooden woman form, while I was an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan in 1975-1976.

My collection is one of Nigeria’s largest. It holds over 7,000 artworks of all genres as well as more than 55,000 photographic images of Nigeria’s fast disappearing cultural festivals. 

The forms, styles and concepts of Nigeria art, significantly showcase and reflect the unique characteristics of Nigeria’s culture, customs and traditions. They in general, exhibit the unique identity of Nigeria’s culture and people.

The Late David Dale, who worked in twenty-one media. I have all media of his works in my collection.

I would still like to collect the works of Messrs Dotun Popoola, Ekpenisi, and Collins Akpabio.

In playing all these roles, they also provide significant percentage of employment opportunities and revenues for societies, towards contributing not only to growing the minds of individuals, but also to the growth and development of nations.

My art foundation is the Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF). OYASAF was incorporated in 2007 and we organised the first exhibition of its collection of Nigerian modern and contemporary artworks in March 2008. 

OYASAF also collaborated with the Late Omooba Oladele Odimayo in November 2008, to exhibit Nigeria’s traditional art collection of totems and drums. The two exhibitions were held at the National Museum in Onikan, Lagos. Since then OYASAF has given grants to PhD scholars to gather from its collection, primary and secondary data for research on Nigerian artists and artworks. 

So far, some fifteen PhD scholars have benefited from this program. In addition, OYASAF has organized local and international artists in residence programs for some twenty-five artists in both its Lagos and Abeokuta facilities. 

OYASAF has documented around thirty of Nigeria’s fast disappearing cultural festivals in all the six zones of the country. The YouTube live streaming recordings of these festivals can be viewed at the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art and at the OYASAF facility in Lagos.

Among many other things, OYASAF has organized a series of lectures in which some number of Nigerian scholars have lectured on the techniques, history and styles of various artists in its collection. It has also hosted numerous local and international art enthusiasts and stakeholder since 2008 to date.

New collectors should collect artworks that appeal to them, made by old and promising master artists, rendered in reasonably striking designs and of compositions exposing the passion of artists, made in durable media that gives collectors the satisfactory pleasures desired. Collectors should not try to copy what others are collecting, but should set out, with clearly identified purposes, at achieving their collection goals.