In its nine years, Art X Lagos in Nigeria has grown to become the largest art fair in West Africa. Held from October 31 to November 3, at the capital city’s Federal Palace Hotel, this year’s edition brought in the fair’s biggest attendance yet. The draw of multiple artists and galleries from all over the continent (and the diaspora) is undeniable; however, this year’s edition showcased one of the fair’s constituent elements that has played a unique role in its growth: program diversity.
The fair kicked off with a collectors’ preview last Thursday where VIPs could see this iteration’s offerings, including a number of special projects, which Art X Lagos founder Tokini Peterside Schwebig said and introduced five years into the fair’s run as a way to look “even more deeply into what was happening in society” and think “more broadly about how we contribute.”
One such special project is the Development Forum, an mentorship program of sorts that exists to introduce emerging African artists to their more established colleagues. Economic and political strife on the continent can often create a series of professional hurdles in an artist’s path toward career sustainability. “Artists lack mentorship, and they need the opportunity to learn from artists practicing on the continent,” said Jumoke Sanwo, the forum’s director. “They need to know how to establish their practice on the continent, rather than just focus on leaving.”
The Development Forum aims to provide artists with the tools to navigate the art market, which has long sought out the work of rising artists, especially from Africa in recent years. Several of the works that sold high during the opening days of fair were made by relatively young artists. One Africa-based collector, when speaking to ARTnews, said, “For African artists, you have to pay close attention to the young ones because if you don’t move quickly, international buyers get there before you, and you miss out on a lot of value.”
Art X Lagos’s most well-known program is the Access Art X Prize, which offers emerging Nigerian and African diasporic artists residencies in London and Lagos and a cash grant. Patrick Akpojotor, the winner of the inaugural prize in 2016, sees a clear distinction between his pre- and post-award careers. “Truly my life changed—and an important thing is I got champions,” he said.
Missla Libsekal, the fair’s curator-at-large, said these diverse programs are both necessary and a no-brainer as they highlight how “art can be a multiplier” in how it can connect artists, curators, and collectors who otherwise might not come into contact. Libsekal curated one of the fair’s special projects, “Mark-Makers: Unsung Pioneers,” which celebrates overlooked from all walks of life—photographers to fighter pilots to doctors.
Throughout the fair, the Art X Cinema section, curated by Tega Okiti, beamed video works on the hotel’s walls, seemingly at random. This year’s project focused on films that explored the identity and perspective of Africans all around the world, and the experience of stumbling upon arresting imagery with no knowledge of the screening scheduling was pleasantly surreal. Okiti said she was “looking at filmmakers using the tools of cinema to push the medium forward,” like Michael Omonua’s Rehearsal and Alain Kassanda’s Coconut Head Generation, which gave moving reflections on modern African life.
About 800 school children attended the fair’s Schools’ Programme, part of an initiative designed to bridge the accessibility gap between Lagos’s most underserved communities and the international art world. This program acknowledges a major issue in the city’s art industry: it is often a trade of privilege. People from low-income backgrounds typically cannot afford to pursue art careers, and the tumultuous economic situation of Nigeria only serves to magnify that problem. It will not be solved only by allowing a few hundred school children experience some art, but an exercise that centers children in these art experiences is an un skippable step in the development of a sustainable arts ecosystem.
The fair’s program is punctuated by its most exciting event, Art X Live, a night of live musical performances by an eclectic mix of African musicians. This year, it was curated by Lanre Masha and Ayo Lawson who aimed to emphasize Nigeria’s musical heritage and the long tail of that legacy. Art X Live, of all the programs, makes most clear this year’s theme of “Promised Lands.”
“If you get asked where are you going, it can be an intimidating question so with this theme, it’s a more open-ended conversation; it’s not so intimidating,” Libsekal, the curator at large, said.
In all the program diversity, it is important not to forget that the gallery booths are still at the core of Art X Lagos. The 10 invited exhibitors represent some of the most prolific and closely watched gallery programs of African art on the continent and abroad. The general character of the work displayed a dimensionality about African art that is not always seen abroad. Of particular note were of two London based artists, Joy Labinjo at Tiwani Contemporary and Vanessa Endeley at Affinity Gallery. (Among the sales made at publication time were a piece by Endeley for $10,000.)
African art can be a multitude of things, and Art X Lagos’s diversified fair program proves that approach is a thoughtful way to showcase it best. While the market in Nigeria is healthy, continued growth requires connection with a greater number of people. Libsekal added, “Within the African art context, there’s this complexity that actually is so great because it’s not boxed in. We can have it in textile. We can have it in music. We can have it in hair anywhere.”