Lagos as soon as once more affirmed its place as a world cultural capital, as ART X Lagos 2025 marked its tenth anniversary with a four-day celebration of African innovation and satisfaction.
Held from November 6–9 underneath the theme “Imagining In any other case, No Matter the Tide,” the landmark version featured 15 curated galleries, new Highlight sections, a Paris residency programme, and a historic exhibition of 200 pictures by the late J.D. Okhai Ojeikere.
The honest attracted dignitaries resembling Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Minister of Finance Wale Edun, and France’s Ambassador Marc Fonbaustier, highlighting its rising diplomatic and financial impression. Over 170 international locations had been represented at ART X Lagos 2025.
Founder Tokini Peterside-Schwebig describes the milestone as “a name to look past current challenges, utilizing creativeness to form city futures and collective motion.”
Oozing with an indescribable mix of creativity by the exploration of assorted artwork kinds, the Federal Palace Lodge, the occasion venue, was remodeled right into a sprawling gallery.
The event additionally celebrated the artistic genius and titan, J.D. Okhai Ojeikere. In keeping with Peterside-Schwebig, celebrating J.D. Okhai Ojeikere’s artistic mastery meant digging far into the previous to seize the weather of nationhood not only for the sake of nostalgia however to encourage the subsequent era of younger folks, together with the scholars who had been concerned within the 2025 colleges programme.
“For the exhibition, you will note photos of scholars in Ibadan within the Fifties, wanting highly effective within the Sixties and Nineteen Seventies. J.D. Okhai Ojeikere is understood for his coiffure sequence exhibited everywhere in the world, however the world has not seen these different photos by him. It took us going to fulfill his household, the custodians of 1000’s of bodily negatives, not digital photos. Our curators went by 6,000 bodily negatives to supply this exhibition of 200 artworks to attempt to contextualise six many years of labor by this iconic Nigerian who determined to dedicate his life to documenting the truth as he noticed it and the facility of his nation and his folks,” she enthused.
Arts fans can hardly consider it’s been ten years since ART X Lagos was born. Like Superb wine, which tastes higher with age, over the previous decade, the honest has welcomed greater than 700,000 guests from over 170 international locations, enjoying an important position in cementing Lagos as one of many world’s most vibrant cultural capitals.
