“I was struck by the difference between Port Harcourt and Lagos; while Port Harcourt leans towards figurative art, Lagos embraced sound and installation art.”
The work of Emeka Ogboh, which we will be exhibiting, is very representative of Lagos' new artistic voices. For the Venice Biennale, Emeka filled a yellow bus (a trademark of the excitingly disorganised traffic of the city) with sounds recorded from Lagos. The effect was mesmerising, it felt as if you stepped into Nigeria purely guided by sounds — the loud horns, the praises and trade.
In general, as far as Nigerian private collections go, they are divided between collectors who have started supporting emerging art and the ones that remain faithful to the figurative art of the Post Colonial 1960s. Private collecting in Nigeria is, sometimes still, about quantity over quality. Hundreds of paintings are stacked next to each other, unframed, and range from the most innovative and psychological portraits — like the work of artist Babajide Olatunji in charcoal and pastel on paper bearing the smallest details and scars of the tribes from Nigeria — to a poorly painted landscape.
“Private collecting in Nigeria is, sometimes still, about quantity over quality”
Lagos is a hot topic in the art world at the moment and it is predicted to be one of the next big art platforms. There is a sense that the country is entering a really exciting phase. Given that West Africa is a short flight away from the Middle Eastern powers and a direct flight with London, geographically it has a key position. Nigeria has always had a slightly different economy from the other West African countries with its history in petrol export since 1956, it gave the country an international voice and independence.
“Lagos is a hot topic in the art world at the moment”
The huge amount of money generated by these exports means that the elite enjoy a luxurious lifestyle; they will become the buyers in the growing art scene. Of course, it is not a perfect situation. Poverty is real and wealth not well-distributed. All galleries are built in luxury hotels for security reasons and the visa process can sometimes be a challenge — even as a French person used to the drain of my own country's bureaucracy, it seemed never ending.
I cannot wait to curate our exhibition “Yellow Sun: The New Contemporaries” in Port Harcourt and Lagos with my artists Scarlett Bowman, Alison Bignon and Jennifer Abessira. The three of them have treated this exhibition as a true cultural experience, reading Half of a Yellow Sun by author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and researching patterns and pigments from Nigeria. It has been a truly enlightening experience for all of us and we cannot wait to grow our relationship with this culturally rich country. A special thank you to Vanessa Power for introducing me to this new art scene.
Yellow Sun: The New Contemporaries
October 1 — 3
An example of Post Colonial figurative art in the 1960s, Lagos.
