Art X Lagos Successfully Marks Africa's First Physical Fair in 2021

Art X Lagos Successfully Marks Africa's First Physical Fair in 2021

West Africa’s premier international art fair ART X Lagos came to town and illuminated contemporary African art in a million lights with the record-making 2021 outing that took place from November 4 - 7 in the city of Lagos, Nigeria.

Although exhibitions like Framing Her by Aworanka and GAIA Africa had led the way for the return of in-person art events, ART X Lagos 2021 was the first physical art fair on the African continent since the devastating outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 which warranted a global lockdown on public gatherings and events. After the pandemic ensured that the 2020 edition of the fair was limited to an online affair, this year’s edition - which marks the prestigious art event’s sixth edition - brought back the feels and ambience of the outdoors as artists, guests, collectors, curators, and art lovers trooped to the Federal Palace in Victoria Island for an enjoyable and long-awaited in-person art festival, with health and social distancing regulations put in place.

In what has been described as the fair’s most ambitious outing to date, ART X Lagos 2021 brought together thirty (30) leading international galleries from around the world to present work both online and in-person. The countries represented include Angola, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, France, Germany, Ghana, Kenya, Martinique, Morocco, Nigeria, Sénégal, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Spain, Uganda, United Kingdom, and the USA. In total, one hundred and twenty (120) artists from over 30 countries. Of the 30 exhibitors, fifteen (15) joined ART X Lagos for the first time – marking a period of growth for the fair despite the challenges wrought by Covid-19.

Exhibiting Galleries

At the close of the in-person fair on November 7, it was reported that galleries exhibiting at the fair had made strong sales amid an inflow of enthusiastic collectors, leading to general feedback of satisfaction and optimism about the future of contemporary African art among the galleries and curators.

“ART X Lagos is very important for the furthering of contemporary art from Africa. It’s on the continent, and it means a lot for the art of Africa to be appreciated and traded in Africa,” Daudi Karungi of Afriart Gallery (Uganda) reiterated. “And the fair has the majority of collectors from Africa. This is the only fair in the world that has ninety percent black people at the opening. And if you don’t fully understand that statement I just made – you better think about it. Look anywhere in the world, tell me the place in the world with more black people gathering over a weekend and collecting art or dealing with art than right here.”

For Oyinkan Dada of DADA Gallery (Nigeria), the significance of ART X Lagos for the international reputation of African art and artists cannot be overstated. She said, “I feel like ART X Lagos is firmly at the center of the African international art scene. I think that being here is being seen and it’s very important to be part of this community. Also, having worked at ART X Lagos before and experiencing how the fair really galvanizes the community and draws people from all over, I thought this was the place to be at and the best place to properly represent my artists on the continent.”

Immersive experiences - Future Africa

ART X Lagos 2021 featured ART X Talks, a discussion panel that brought together experts to discuss timely topics including the role of collecting on the continent, the dangers of stereotyping African art, demystifying NFTs, and a panel discussion with Ngaire Blankenberg – the newly appointed Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.

The founder of Art X Lagos, Tokini Peterside, further revealed that the event entered into a special NFTs sale in partnership with digital art marketplace SuperRare, the first such collaboration with an African art fair, thus, the fair hosted NFT artists from across Africa and its diaspora, some of whom have their works on SuperRare.

"NFTs are now bringing formidable opportunities to these artists to commercialize their work, secure their work on the blockchain, attach smart contracts to their work, which govern the way the work is sold and resold," Peterside told Reuters.

As part of its technological integrations, ART X Lagos 2021 also featured a Future Africa installation, a project sponsored by Africa No Filter, aimed at exploring the “current challenges that arise when thinking about the future state of the African continent.” 

Part of the Future Africa project was newly commissioned artworks by David Alabo, a Ghana-based artist with Moroccan heritage, and Adéọlá Ọlágúnju, a Nigerian artist, as well as multilayered immersive installation Unfolding Layers of Time composed of paintings, sculptures, and photographs by Nigerian artist Kelani Abass; and We Are Here with the film collective The Critics and sound artist Aye! teaming up with ART X Lagos’ visitors to produce a dynamic short film. 

An afro-surrealist who practices Afrofuturism, Alabo focuses on reinterpreting classic African ideas through new technology or new media. He explained that creating an immersive experience using technology opens art up to more people.

For his work titled “One Africa Three Futures” showcased at the just concluded Art X Lagos 2021, Alabo used 3D and virtual reality (VR) to help his audience to see and interact with futures they are not used to. The audience used their phones and laptops to access the VR experience.

For the collaboration “The restful ones are not yet born”, Alabo and Ọlágúnjú, who works with video, photography, sound, and installations, explore questions like, What does thinking about the future mean? Under what parameters do we want to imagine that future?

Ọlágúnjú’s solo exhibition, a three-channel video titled, “ÌYÁBỌ̀”, projects Africa in a space where it is trying to birth itself, through the emergence of chaos. Drawing inspiration from her experience as a young child who lived through military dictatorships in Nigeria, Ọlágúnjú believes that rebirth comes with chaos, confusion, and destruction.

Impact

The Access Bank ART X Prize 2019 winner, documentary photographer Etinosa Yvonne also presented a solo exhibition titled “It’s All in My Head”, while the winner of the Access Bank ART X Prize 2021, Chigozie Obi, who is headed for a residency at Gasworks in London in addition to winning a cash prize and mentorship, will present work at ART X Lagos 2022.

Speaking on the successful outing of the sixth edition, Tokini Peterside said: “This year’s ART X Lagos created a place for artists, gallerists, collectors, and curators to come together and celebrate the vibrant African art scene. The response to our first physical fair in two years has been astounding – demonstrating the critical role that the fair plays in Africa’s art ecosystems. Many of the 30 galleries that joined us have experienced robust sales and we are excited to welcome even more of them at ART X Lagos 2022. We thank all of our supporters, galleries, exhibiting artists, and special projects artists for such a brilliant showing that demonstrated once again Lagos’ dynamism as a leading art capital in Africa.”

The ART X Lagos 2021 experience is available online and can be viewed as digital versions on the fair's official website till November 21.

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