West Africa’s leading international art fair, ART X Lagos, expands for 10X Edition
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
“This is my 10th time standing in front of an audience to introduce the year’s edition of ART X Lagos and honestly, it fills me with such pride and gratitude to see you all here to commemorate this moment. Tonight is the official launch of ART X Lagos 2025. We look forward to marking a truly special milestone – the 10th edition of the fair is taking place from 6 to 9 November at the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos,” said Tokini Peterside-Schwebig, Founder of ART X Lagos.
ART X Lagos, West Africa’s leading international art fair, is set for a grand celebration of the artistic ingenuity of Nigeria and the rest of Africa as part of its highly anticipated tenth edition. Tagged 10X, the expanded fair will hold from November 6–9, 2025 at the Federal Palace, Lagos.
This was disclosed at an immersive event which served as the official launch of the event in Lagos on Wednesday, October 22 at Miliki, Victoria Island, Lagos.
“This is my 10th time standing in front of an audience to introduce the year’s edition of ART X Lagos and honestly, it fills me with such pride and gratitude to see you all here to commemorate this moment. Tonight is the official launch of ART X Lagos 2025. We look forward to marking a truly special milestone – the 10th edition of the fair is taking place from 6 to 9 November at the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos.
“I can hardly believe it’s been ten years since we took those first, audacious steps to create ART X Lagos. When we began in 2016, the dream was simple, yet bold: to champion how African creativity is seen, celebrated, and valued — to show that our stories, our art, and our ideas could stand proudly on the world stage. That dream began right here in Lagos, and over the past decade, it has grown into something extraordinary — a movement that has connected artists, communities, and audiences across Africa and beyond.
“We’ve now welcomed more than 700,000 visitors from over 170 countries, and ART X Lagos has played a vital role in cementing Lagos among the world’s most vibrant cultural capitals. From the very beginning, ART X Lagos set out to be more than just an art fair. We wanted to create a transformative cultural catalyst — one that could nurture new voices while elevating established ones, propel African storytellers into new arenas, reimagine the ways in which Africa tells its story to the world, and create a space to celebrate African excellence in all its forms,” Tokini Peterside-Schwebig, Founder of ART X Lagos, began.
Speaking further, she stated: “This vision — and its impact over the past decade — is captured in our first-ever Impact Report, documenting ten years of cultural exchange, creative innovation, and our contribution to shaping Africa’s creative economy. Over the last ten years, we’ve built an ecosystem — through ART X Live!, ART X Cinema, ART X Talks, The Library, The ART X Prize, The Development Forum, and our Schools’ Programme, each designed to open access and deepen impact.”
This year, ART X Lagos 2025 will feature 15 curated galleries, presenting a diverse range of emerging and established artists from Africa and its diaspora, including: kó, SMO Contemporary, Nike Art Gallery, Wunika Mukan Gallery, Tiwani Contemporary, O’DA Art, Affinity Art Gallery, Yenwa Gallery, Alexis Galleries, and Gallery 1957, Afriart Gallery, Galerie MAM.
“We will also debut a Spotlight Section, featuring ADEGBOLA, AMG Projects, and Nomadic Art Gallery, three emerging galleries presenting focused solo exhibitions by some of the continent’s most exciting new voices. These gallery presentations honour where we began and celebrate how far we’ve come. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the people and partners who make this all possible. First, to our sponsors and partners — Zenith Bank, Afreximbank, Chapel Hill Denham, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers, AnapJets, emPLE, EnjoyCorp, Air France, and ZTL Liquids Transfer — thank you for your continued belief in our vision. Your partnership over the years has sustained and propelled us, and we’re deeply grateful. To our Advisory Board — Femi Lijadu, Labi Ogunbiyi, N’Goné Fall, Papa Omotayo, and Reni Folawiyo — thank you for your steadfast commitment. And a special mention to Papa Omotayo of MOEAA, who also serves as our Exhibition Designer.
And to my extraordinary team, whose tireless dedication and creativity have shaped not only this year’s edition but the entire ART X story — thank you. Your commitment and brilliance have brought us to this milestone moment,” she submitted further.
Since its launch in 2016, ART X Lagos has become a cornerstone of the African art scene and a global destination, through bold cultural programming spanning visual art, music, film, design, and literature and drawing artists and galleries from over 70 countries and attracting participants from 170 nations worldwide, while expanding the boundaries of what an art fair can be.
ART X Lagos has also played a pivotal role in amplifying the voices of African artists, curators, and galleries, both emerging and established. By extending an open invitation to cultural collaborators to programme around the fair, ART X Lagos sparked the emergence of Lagos Art Week and the broader art season in Nigeria. It is now an annual highlight of the country’s cultural calendar, positioning Lagos as a leading hub on the global art map.
As part of its tenth anniversary, the art fair also unveiled its first-ever Impact Report, reflecting on a decade of cultural exchange, creative innovation, and the fair’s role in shaping the continent’s creative economy. Under the theme: “Imagining Otherwise, No Matter The Tide,” the theme of the tenth anniversary, led by Founder/Chairman, Tokini Peterside-Schwebig, addresses how, when we imagine Lagos’ future, and life more broadly in urban, global centres, human imagination can assist us in our attempt to create healthy, spatialities. The theme considers the ways that we individually and collectively have agency to act, to imagine and cultivate our shared place in the world.
“Our tenth edition marks an important milestone for ART X Lagos and offers a moment to reflect on how Nigeria’s art scene has evolved since we began. From the outset, our vision was to champion how African creativity is seen, celebrated, and valued. That vision has since grown into a movement that connects artists, communities, and audiences across borders. Through our platforms, we continue to reimagine what it means to advocate for the African narrative on the global stage. This year’s theme centres on possibility — exploring the role that community will play in the future of Lagos and cities like it around the world. We’re very excited to also share our special programming that amplifies African voices and celebrates the continent’s boundless creativity,” Peterside-Schwebig said.
For its landmark anniversary, ART X Lagos expands its footprint across four dynamic new locations within the Federal Palace grounds. Alongside the Balmoral Marquee, the exhibitions will unfold in the Federal Palace Ballroom Marquee, the expansive Federal Palace Lobby and into the Waterfront Garden, an ambitious format introduced specially for the 10th anniversary edition.
Debuting this year, the Spotlight Galleries section will platform a new generation of galleries presenting focused solo exhibitions by emerging artists from the continent. This section will feature ADEGBOLA (Lagos, Nigeria), AMG Projects (Lagos, Nigeria), and Nomadic Art Gallery (Lagos, Nigeria) — all participating in the fair for the first time.
ART X Lagos 2025 will feature special projects curated by Curator-at-Large, Missla Libsekal, with highlights including ‘External Realities, Internal Geographies’ by Nengi Omuku, sponsored by Chapel Hill Denham, transforming Sanyan cloth into landscapes of memory and refuge; and WHERE THERE IS LIFE, THERE IS HOPE: B’á ò kú, ìṣe ò tán’ by Temitayo Ogunbiyi, sponsored by emPLE, which presents art as a participatory tool for rethinking the urban environment—not as static infrastructure, but as a living, breathing space of communal negotiation and possibility.
Among this year’s special projects is the inaugural ART X ICON exhibition- ‘An Exacting Eye’ featuring J.D. Okhai Ojeikere, sponsored by Zenith Bank. The exhibition will present six decades of Ojeikere’s photographic mastery – a powerful record of Nigeria’s evolving physical and human story.
Introduced this year as a special extension of the ART X ICON exhibition, The Masterclass will spotlight emerging talents in dialogue with the legacy of an African legend. The inaugural 2025 edition pays homage to J.D. ’Okhai Ojeikere, whose disciplined eye transformed everyday forms into living archives. His practice modelled a rigorous archival gaze — rooted in repetition, variation, and the dignity of the everyday aesthetic.
This year, ART X Lagos invites photographers who approach their practice with similar purpose — to be part of The Masterclass. Led by his son, photographer and archivist Amaize Ojeikere, the Masterclass will select 10 photographers aged 30 or under for a guided workshop on November 8–9 in Lagos. Three participants will later receive grants and present their work publicly. Interested photographers are invited to visit www.artxlagos.com to review full details and apply before Wednesday, 29 October 2025, at 11:59 PM WAT.
To reflect the work of the iconic photographer, a live photography studio by artist, Rachel Seidu — ‘Portraits of Modernity’ — will invite fairgoers to co-create cultural artefacts that honour the past, memorialise the present, and anticipate the future. Inspired by J.D. ’Okhai Ojeikere’s iconic portraits, and curated by Fikayo Adebajo, it celebrates Nigeria’s sculptural hairstyles and cultural landscapes while welcoming today’s audiences into the frame.
The programme will also feature two major sculptural installations. At the Waterfront Garden, MASS (Devotion) by Dennis Osadebe reimagines collective spirituality through a circular fiberglass structure that evokes the prayer circle and the congregation, inviting reflection beyond the fairground. At the fair’s entrance, Asoebi by Sokari Douglas Camp CBE, forges aso ebi — literally “family cloth” — the ceremonial textile, in steel, translating softness into structure and turning pattern into presence.
A dedicated space for literature and reflection, part of this year’s Special Projects, featuring works by Bruce Onobrakpeya, loans from the G.A.S. Foundation Art Library, curators’ research publications, and select ART X Cinema programming. More than an installation, The Library serves as a participatory hub for communal discovery and dialogue. The Library is sponsored by Stanbic IBTC Pensions.
Presented within this year’s Special Projects, The Speakers’ Corner has become an important participatory platform at the fair — a transformative space where journeys, cultures, and stories intertwine. This year’s iteration, curated by Fikayo Adebajo and centred around an installation by the social enterprise Mitimeth, honours the 2025 theme through the powerful symbolism of the mangrove. The Speakers’ Corner invites guests to engage and step into an evolving dialogue about who we are and the world we want to shape together.
Curated by Tega Okiti, ART X Cinema will present a vibrant line-up of shorts, features, and documentaries exploring African and diasporic experiences. Highlights include My Father’s Shadow (2025), the Cannes-selected debut feature by Akinola Davies, alongside Mati Diop’s acclaimed films Dahomey (2024) and Atlantique (2019).
Curated by Lanre Masha, ART X Live! will be headlined by Nigerian “Highlife Fusion” band The Cavemen, whose sound bridges generations by blending Highlife, Afrobeat, Jazz, and Soul. Sponsored by EnjoyCorp and themed From the Roots, this year’s edition celebrates artists whose journeys reflect growth from local to global stages, fusing tradition and innovation to showcase Africa’s evolving global voices with performances by LLona, Braye, and Ameaya.
A platform for leading African and diasporic voices. ART X Talks has created space for key African voices in the art world to share bold visions and unapologetic narratives, reshaping how audiences understand both art and identity. The 2025 lineup includes: Akinbode Akinbiyi, Amaize Ojeikere, Mati Diop, and the Art Across Borders artists, alongside The Rebels and the Movement – in conversation with Bruce Onobrakpeya, Jimoh Buraimoh, Muraina Oyelami, and Nike Davies-Okundaye, presented in partnership with kó, for a rare, cross-current conversation.
In its fifth edition, sponsored by Afreximbank, and curated by Jumoke Sanwo, Art Across Borders convenes six acclaimed mid-career artists – Edson Chagas, Mário Macilau, Nicène Kossentini, Fatoumata Diabaté, Kudzanai Chiurai, and Camille Chedda – exploring decoloniality, belonging, and shared futures.
In celebration of its tenth edition, ART X Lagos launched Resonance, an annual residency in Paris for visual artists, designers, and curators in partnership with the Embassy of France in Nigeria and Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris. The inaugural fellows — Mobolaji Ogunrosoye (Visual Artist), Olorunfemi Adewuyi (Designer), and Tony Agbapuonwu (Curator) — will each undertake three-month residencies in Paris.
Educational initiatives including the Schools’ Programme and The Development Forum will continue to nurture young African talent, solidifying ART X Lagos as a vital platform for creativity and inclusive cultural dialogue.
ART X Lagos 2025 expands its commitment to community with dynamic, intergenerational programming that welcomes children and families into the heart of the fair. Highlights include Tales by Moonlight, a storytelling experience in The Library, hosted by writer Oluwalanu Agusto and legendary artist Bruce Onobrakpeya, connecting audiences through Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage. The “Imagining Otherwise” Exhibition showcases winning works from the ART X Schools’ Programme, where young artists reimagine Lagos through creativity and resilience. Meanwhile, The Tide Wall invites children to create prints inspired by the textures of the city, forming a living mural of shared imagination. Alongside interactive Kids’ Tours, these initiatives nurture curiosity, participation, and a lifelong connection to art.
ART X Lagos 2025 is proudly sponsored by Zenith Bank, Afreximbank, AnapJets, Chapel Hill Denham, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers, emPLE, EnjoyCorp, Air France, ZTL Liquids Transfer and Patron.
