West Africa’s leading international fairs, ART X Lagos, returns to Federal Palace, Lagos for its 11th edition, from November 5 to 8, 2026, with the opening of a new chapter following 10X, its landmark 10th anniversary fair.
Founded by Tokini Peterside-Schwebig in 2016, over the years, the fair has grown into a global destination for contemporary culture from Africa and its diaspora, drawing artists and galleries from over 70 countries and participants from 170 nations worldwide.

ART X Lagos now enters its second decade with the theme — “A New Chapter, A New Decade”, turning to the artists, architects, educators and thinkers who shaped modernism in Nigeria for inspiration.

The 2026 programme explores this question through acts of bridging: between past and present, tradition and contemporary practice, local knowledge and international exchange, established voices and those still emerging into view.

Peterside-Schwebig, Founder and Director of ART X Lagos, said: “As ART X Lagos begins its second decade, we are thinking deeply about what it means to move forward while remaining connected to the histories, knowledge and cultural traditions that have shaped us. The generation that shaped modernism in Nigeria showed us that looking to our past does not mean standing still. They drew from what they inherited and transformed it into new forms of expression that spoke powerfully to their present.

“A New Chapter, A New Decade asks what that same spirit can mean for us today. This year, we honour the mastery of artists and cultural practitioners who turn inheritance into new forms of expression, while creating bridges between generations, disciplines and geographies. More than an art fair, we want ART X Lagos to be a space where we can recover what has shaped us, encounter a more confident sense of self and place, and from there, imagine new possibilities for what comes next.”

This year’s event brings together a tightly curated selection of 15 exhibitors across its main and spotlight sections, presenting established and emerging artistic voices from Africa and its diaspora.

The main section will feature Affinity Art Gallery (Nigeria), Afriart Gallery (Uganda), Alexis Galleries (Nigeria), AMG Projects (Nigeria), Gallery 1957 (Ghana), kó (Nigeria), Kokopelli Gallery (Nigeria), Nike Art Gallery (Nigeria), O’DA
Art (Nigeria), SMO Contemporary Art (Nigeria), TAFETA (United Kingdom), Yenwa (Nigeria).

The spotlight section, which platforms emerging galleries through focused presentations, returns with Adegbola Gallery, Nomadic Art Gallery and Windsor Gallery, all based in Nigeria.

Sponsored by Zenith Bank, this year, ART X ICON turns its focus to pioneering Nigerian potter Ladi Dosei Kwali (1925–1984) with Ladi Kwali: Beyond the Vessel, conceived and developed by curator Dr Jareh Das.

Bringing together ceramics and archival materials from the National Museum in Lagos, alongside works from private lenders, the exhibition considers Kwali beyond the familiar narratives through which she has often been understood.

Alongside Kwali’s ceramics, Beyond the Vessel will feature works by women potters who worked alongside and after her, including Kande Ushafa and Asibi Ido, as well as traditional pottery by Gbari, Nupe and Bida potters.

The exhibition examines what Kwali inherited, what she transformed and what subsequent generations have carried forward, while raising broader questions about craft and art, gender and access.

Returning as an extension of ART X ICON, The Masterclass will place emerging artists in dialogue with Kwali’s legacy.
Open to practitioners across painting, sculpture, photography, film, textiles, digital practice, performance, ceramics and other visual-art disciplines, the programme will select 10 emerging artists for an intensive learning journey at the fair featuring intimate conversations and workshops with leading figures in African art.
ART X Lagos’ Special Projects feature installations and participatory experiences that extend the fair beyond the traditional exhibition format.

Ndidi Dike’s ‘Residues of Past Encounters, 2024–2026’, sponsored by Chapel Hill Denham and curated by N’Goné Fall, places the weathered wreck of a capsized canoe at the heart of an installation reflecting on the history of Badagry’s ‘Point of No Return’. Suspended fabric and a mirrored surface connect histories of displacement and loss with the realities of the present, asking how histories continue to travel through contemporary life.

ART X Cinema takes a new form in 2026. Rather than occupying a dedicated screening space, moving images will travel throughout the fair, appearing within exhibitions and programmes where film can deepen the stories being told.

The programme will also present Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Joel ‘Kachi Benson’s Mothers of Chibok (2024) alongside a conversation with the director.

Further moving-image works and encounters will be announced ahead of the fair including a documentary on the ART X ICON, Ladi Kwali.

Over the years, the platform has welcomed voices including El Anatsui, Njideka Akunyili-Crosby, Nike Davies-Okundaye, Ibrahim Mahama, Wangechi Mutu, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Yinka Shonibare CBE and Hank Willis Thomas.