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Yinka Shonibare to deliver keynote address at 2018 Art X Lagos

Yinka Shonibare's 'Venus de' Medici' ART X Lagos, West Africa's Premier International Art Fair was founded in 2016 by Tokini Peterside to showcase the best and most innovative contemporary art from the African continent and diaspora, and to widen Nigeria's connection to the art scene across Africa and internationally. Through its contribution to increasing the…

Yinka Shonibare’s ‘Venus de’ Medici’

ART X Lagos, West Africa’s Premier International Art Fair was founded in 2016 by Tokini Peterside to showcase the best and most innovative contemporary art from the African continent and diaspora, and to widen Nigeria’s connection to the art scene across Africa and internationally.

Through its contribution to increasing the visibility of African artists, ART X Lagos aims to reinforce the visual arts as an important component of the creative industry in Nigeria and Africa, and to position Lagos as an emergent cultural capital on the continent.

This year, ART X Lagos is proud to present Yinka Shonibare MBE as the Keynote Artist, who will be presenting a special exhibition exploring his career highlights, and he will also give the keynote talk within the ART X Talks program.
Yinka Shonibare MBE is a master of technical and visual versatility, well known for his embrace of richly patterned Dutch wax textiles, which are applied to the surface of canvases and three-dimensional landscapes. Working across painting, sculpture, photography, film and installation, Shonibare’s work examines race, class and the construction of cultural identity.
Shonibare’s works have formed part of prominent collections, including the Tate Collection, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C; Museum of Modern Art, New York – among others.

COTE D’IVOIRE OOA CONTEMPORARY ARTIST, ABOUDIA, WILL BE EXHIBITING AT THIS YEAR’S ART X LAGOS FROM 2ND- 4TH NOVEMBER.

Aboudia—L_aventurier—2018—150x150cm—Acrylic-and-oil-pastels-on-canvas-1807

Abdoulaye Diarrassouba, also known as Aboudia is an African contemporary artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He will be presenting his new series of paintings at ART X Lagos 2018, where he will exhibit his works at the Out of Africa gallery booth.

Aboudia first drew international attention for his work chronicling the civil war that broke out in Abidjan in 2011. He has since become known for creating multi-layered, mixed-media paintings of Abidjan street scenes, featuring child-like figures rendered in a style that draws from the aesthetics of graffiti and traditional African carvings and captures his subjects’ innocence as well as something much darker and chaotic.

According to Aboudia, the laughter and tears of children remain his driving force, and to provide concrete assistance to them and their mothers.

Aboudia has held solo shows in New York, London and Barcelona, and his works are held in major international collections.

ART X LAGOS 2018 WILL FEATURE AWARD-WINNING SOUTH AFRICAN ARTIST AND VISUAL ACTIVIST, ZANELE MUHOLI

Zanele Muholi, Phaphama at Cassilhaus North Carolina, 2016, Silver gelatin print, dimensions variable

Zanele Muholi is a photographer and visual activist. She is the co-founder of Forum for Empowerment of Women (FEW) and Founder Inkanyiso (www.inkayiso.org), a forum for queer and visual (activist) media.

Muholi studied Advanced Photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg, and in 2009 completed an MFA: Documentary Media at Ryerson University, Toronto. She is an Honorary Professor at the University of the Arts/ Hochschule für Künste Bremen.

Muholi’s self-proclaimed mission is ‘to re-write a black queer and trans visual history of South Africa through ongoing photographic projects. One of her ongoing series is Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail, The Dark Lionness), which confronts the politics of race and pigment in the photographic archive through self-portraiture characterized by the use of heightened contrast.

Awards and accolades received include France’s Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2017) and the Africa’Sout! Courage and Creativity Award (2016).

Zanele Muholi will be showcasing her works at the Stevenson gallery booth at ART X Lagos 2018.

SELF-TAUGHT SCULPTOR, CYRUS KABIRU SET TO DISPLAY STRIKING PIECES TO THIS YEAR’S ART X LAGOS

Cyrus Kabiru_Dadab_2017_C-type Print on Diasec Mount_70 x 60 cm_HR

Cyrus Kabiru is a self-taught sculptor whose practice straddles the intersection between fine art, haute couture, performance and documentary, yielding works that articulate his experience of contemporary Africa. Cyrus Kabiru will exhibit at the SMAC gallery booth at ART X Lagos 2018.

He is best known for his intricate found-material sculptures, which he fashions and re-contextualises from discarded urban fragments and obsolete technology. The most publicly documented of these has been the series C-Stunners: wearable art in the form of striking pieces of eyewear that capture the confidence and attitude of a young generation of globally aware Kenyans.

Kabiru’s work is held in numerous collections, including the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa; and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, USA. Recent exhibitions include All Things Being Equal, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town (2017); and Making Africa – A Continent of Contemporary Design, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain (2015 – 2018).

JOY LABINJO TO EXHIBIT HER LARGE-SCALE PAINTINGS THAT DEPICT INTIMATE SCENES OF FAMILY LIFE AT ART X LAGOS 2018

Joy Labinjo_Untitled, 2018_Acrylic and oil pastel on paper_59.4 x 89.1 cm

Award winning artist Joy Labinjo is one of the artists bringing her unique work to ART X Lagos 2018. She will be exhibiting her works at the Tiwani Contemporary gallery booth.

Joy Labinjo graduated from Newcastle University with a BA in Fine Art, where she was awarded the coveted Woon Art Prize in 2017.

Labinjo’s paintings draw on her British-Nigerian heritage and explore the relationship between belonging, identity and culture. In her current work, she uses family photographs as a starting point for her paintings. Piecing the images together according to vibrant colours, patterns and poses, she creates collages which, in turn, inspire the compositions of the paintings. Labinjo’s eclectic visual vocabulary and mixed technique explore various modes of representation and echo her experience of multiple identities – growing up Black, British, Nigerian in the 90s and early 00s.

Her recent and forthcoming exhibitions include: The Everyday Political, Cafe Gallery Project, London, UK (2018); The Accumulation of Things, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham, UK (2018); Gatherings, Goldtapped, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (2018); and Belonging, Morley Gallery, London, UK (2018). Labinjo’s first solo exhibition at Tiwani Contemporary will take place in November 2018.

PAUL ONDITI’S MESMERIZING AND INTRIGUING WORKS WILL FEATURE AT ART X LAGOS 2018!

Paul Onditi, Aftermath – Filicudi

Paul Onditi is a young artist from Kenya, whose engagement with contemporary practice is rapidly gaining international attention.

He will be showcasing his captivatng works at this year’s ART X Lagos at the Retro Africa booth.

Onditi’s richly layered mixed-media images explore contemporary global issues through the use of highly experimental, labour-intensive techniques. Filmstrips, prints, transferred images, and layers of pigment, caustic acid and oil paint are meticulously patched together to capture the tensions embodied in the ideological, political and religious divisions that have plagued our collective existence since time immemorial.

Onditi studied at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach am Main, Germany, and returned to Nairobi in 2010, where he now lives and works.

He has exhibited locally and internationally, including at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt (2010), was invited for a solo show at VOLTA New York in March 2016, and was selected to represent Kenya at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017).

AWARD WINNING CERAMIST, RANTI BAM, IS BRINGING HER UNIQUE WORKS TO ART X LAGOS 2018

Fete by Ranti Bam, 2018. Vulcan black clay, 31 x 16cm

Ranti Bam was born in Lagos, Nigeria and raised in London. She received an MA from The Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design, where her thesis was entitled ‘How can art and design help man understand his inseparability from his environment?’ aka ‘A dialogue between the known and the experienced’. The research allowed her to make tangible her love of Eastern philosophy, etymology and clay.

After extensive travels, including a two-year pause in Greece, she was accepted onto the renowned City Lit ceramics degree course.

Ranti’s work is inspired by a love of words and metaphor, and by her fascination with the extraordinary properties of clay. She makes constant reference to the concepts of Light – metaphorically and physically, in process and form; Organic states; rawness – by working intuitively and collaging freely cut slabs of clay around a thrown base; and play – by pushing what she calls “this wondrous material” to its limits.

Ranti Bam will showcase her works at the SMO Contemporary booth at ART X Lagos 2018.

LAGOS PAINTER AND SCULPTOR ALIMI ADEWALE SET TO EXHIBIT AT ART X LAGOS 2018

Alimi Adewale – Migrants II 104 x 165 cm

The renowned Lagos artist Alimi Adewale, whose work explores various aspects of urbanisation, and the condition of everyday man will exhibit at ART X Lagos 2018, at the ArtHouse – The Space booth. In richly textured “sculptural” portraits and landscapes, often rendered in oil on canvas or in mixed media involving photography and acrylic paint, Alimi combines elements of minimalism and abstraction to evoke the movement, tensions and intensity inherent in the cosmopolitan environment.
His nudes, meanwhile, probe the unacceptability of the idea of the nude figure in art, especially in African art, while his sculptures examine the experiential function of art in relation to the traditional function of African sculpture. His recent solo exhibitions include Restrictions, Galleri Astley, Uttersberg, Sweden (2016); Divergence, Alara, Lagos, Nigeria (2015); and Megalopolis, Just Africa, Stockholm, Sweden (2015). He was the Artist in Residence at Konstepidemin, Sweden, in September/October 2016 and at Miliki, Lagos, in March/April 2017.

SPOTLIGHT ON KELANI ABASS, ON OF THE NOTABLE LOCAL ARTISTS EXHIBITING AT ART X LAGOS 2018

Kelani Abass_Casing History 24_2018_Letterpress type-case and digital prints_36 x 82 cm
Versatile artist, Kelani Abass probes the shared history and character of man and machines and the ontological significance of time and memory through a wide range of media that includes, and often combines, photography, print work, collage, painting and installation, and frequently incorporates archival material. The resulting works render personal stories against a backdrop of social and political events and create new meanings and narratives.

Abass studied painting at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, graduating with distinction. His many accolades include first prize in the 3rd Black Heritage International Painting Competition, organized by Caterina de’ Medici Africa (2010). Abass’ work has been included in numerous group shows, and been the subject of five solo exhibitions: If I could save time, CCA, Lagos (2016); Aso Ìgbà, Art Clip Africa, Lagos (2016); Asiko, CCA, Lagos (2013); Man and Machine, Omenka Gallery, Lagos (2011); and Paradigm Shift, Mydrim Gallery, Lagos (2009).

Kelani Abass will exhibit her works at the ArtHouse – The Space booth at ART X Lagos 2018.

TRANSDISCIPLINARY ARTIST AND WINNER OF THE 2018 ART X PRIZE WITH ACCESS, BOLATITO ADEREMI-IBITOLA, WILL PRESENT A SOLO EXHIBITION AT ART X LAGOS 2018

Screenshot from Bolatito Aderemi- Ibilola’s Scraps from Mama’s floor
Bolatito Aderemi-Ibitola is a multimedia artist working primarily in time-based art. Her work focuses on the intersections of race, gender, and ethnicity. Earlier in 2018 Bolatito emerged as the winner of the ART Prize with Access which included a N1M cash grant and a solo presentation at ART X Lagos 2018. Bolatito will present “Scraps from Mama’s Floor” at the fair this November, her first solo show.

ART X Lagos 2018 will hold from 2nd (VIP Event) to 4th November at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The event promises to deliver an exciting program of talks and specially curated projects, attracting a broader audience of collectors, high net worth individuals, connoisseurs, cultural practitioners and art lovers.

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