ART X LAGOS AT 10: IMAGINING OTHERWISE IN AFRICA’S CULTURAL CAPITAL
6 – 9 November 2025, Lagos, Nigeria
When ART X Lagos launched in 2016, it didn’t just add another art fair to the calendar — it redefined what an art fair could be. Now celebrating its tenth anniversary under the theme Imagining Otherwise, No Matter The Tide, the fair returns to the Federal Palace Hotel from 6 – 9 November 2025 with its most ambitious edition yet.
Over the past decade, ART X Lagos has grown into West Africa’s most significant international art platform, fusing visual art, music, film, design, and literature into a festival of contemporary culture. Founded by Tokini Peterside-Schwebig, the fair has positioned Lagos as a cultural powerhouse on the global stage — connecting artists from more than 70 countries, drawing 700,000 visitors, and sparking an entire art season across Nigeria’s buzzing capital.
The 2025 Vision: Beyond the Art Fair
This anniversary edition addresses a pressing question: what role can human imagination play in shaping healthier, more inclusive urban futures? From major gallery showcases to bold special projects, ART X Lagos continues its commitment to championing underrepresented voices while fostering a pan-African cultural ecosystem.
The gallery line-up reads like a who’s who of contemporary African art: Gallery 1957 (Accra), Afriart Gallery(Kampala), kó (Lagos), SMO Contemporary (Lagos), and Tiwani Contemporary (London) return alongside heavyweights such as Nike Art Gallery. For the first time, a new Spotlight Galleries section will highlight Lagos newcomers, including ADEGBOLA, AMG Projects, and Nomadic Art Gallery, each presenting focused solo shows from a new generation of artists.
Art Across Borders
One of ART X Lagos’s most celebrated platforms, Art Across Borders, returns with a pan-African lens curated by Jumoke Sanwo. Titled We Are Where We Think (we are), the exhibition explores decolonial perspectives and the multiplicity of African identities across installation, photography, and time-based media.
Participating artists include Kudzanai Chiurai (Zimbabwe), Fatoumata Diabate (Mali), Edson Chagas (Angola), Mario Macilau (Mozambique), Nicène Kossentini (Tunisia), and Camille Chedda (Jamaica) — voices that embody a cross-continental dialogue between past, present, and future.
Cinema, Music and More
At ART X Cinema, curator Tega Okiti has assembled a powerful line-up of shorts, artist films, and narrative features tracing African and diasporic storytelling. Highlights include Akinola Davies’ debut feature My Father’s Shadow — the first Nigerian film to premiere at Cannes — alongside films by French-Senegalese auteur Mati Diop, including Atlantique and Dahomey.
On the music front, ART X Live! will be headlined by Lagos’ own The Cavemen, the sibling duo reviving and reinventing Highlife with a heady mix of Afrobeat, jazz and soul. Expect an electrifying, tradition-meets-future performance that captures the sonic energy of Lagos today.
ART X LAGOS AT 10: IMAGINING OTHERWISE IN AFRICA’S CULTURAL CAPITAL
Special Projects and The Library
The fair’s Special Projects include Nengi Omuku’s lush canvases painted on sanyan cloth, Temitayo Ogunbiyi’s line-based works, and a rare presentation of lesser-known photographs by legendary Nigerian documentarian J.D. Okhai Ojeikere.
Meanwhile, The Library returns as an immersive hub for literature, featuring iconic works by Bruce Onobrakpeya, curated publications, and loaned volumes from Yinka Shonibare’s G.A.S. Foundation. More than an installation, it invites visitors into a collective act of knowledge-sharing.
Looking Forward
As part of its tenth anniversary, ART X Lagos launches Resonance, a Paris-based residency in partnership with the French Embassy in Nigeria and the Cité Internationale des Arts. Its inaugural fellows — Mobolaji Ogunrosoye, Olorunfemi Adewuyi, and Tony Agbapuonwu — will take Nigerian creativity into a global conversation.
Reflecting on the milestone, Tokini Peterside-Schwebig says:
“What began in 2016 as a bold vision to champion African creativity has grown into a movement. This year’s edition is about possibilities — about how community and imagination can shape the future of Lagos and cities like it around the world.”
From its inception, ART X Lagos has been more than a fair — it has been a cultural revolution, one that has turned Lagos into a global centre of creative gravity. Its tenth anniversary promises to be both a reflection and a projection: of where African art has come from, and where it might go next.
