‘Championing African Creativity at the Highest Level’: ART X Lagos Celebrates 10 Years

When Tokini Peterside founded ART X Lagos in 2015, she stated her ambition was ‘to create an infrastructure for artists to work’. Today, the fair displays contemporary art, music, film, fashion, literature, and design. Yet it also acutely reflects how Nigeria’s burgeoning tech, energy, and commodities sectors intersect with its cultural life and collector ecosystem. ‘We wanted ART X Lagos to be a mirror of the city’s dynamism,’ Peterside says. ‘It had to feel as layered as Lagos itself.’

The tenth edition takes place from 6 to 9 November 2025 at the Federal Palace Hotel on Victoria Island, sandwiched between Lagos Fashion Week, Design Week Lagos, LagosPhoto, and the Lagos Biennial. Titled Imagining Otherwise, No Matter the Tide, the fair looks at how creativity might shape the future of urban environments, exploring issues of social mobility, inequality, and multiculturalism. ‘Each year, our theme responds to the moment,’ Peterside explains. ‘This one is about imagining Lagos, and other cities like it, as places where we can use art to create healthier communities.’

Around a dozen established galleries will participate, including the old guard of kó, Tiwani Contemporary, Gallery 1957, and Nike Art Gallery. Newer entrants ADEGBOLA, AMG Projects, and Nomadic Art Gallery will join as part of a Spotlight Galleries section. Peterside stresses that the mix is intentional: ‘From the outset, it was crucial to welcome first-time buyers alongside seasoned patrons. Our collectors come from fintech, energy, and other industries that drive Nigeria’s economy, and we design the fair so everyone can find a way in.’

Special projects include Nengi Omuku, a Nigerian painter based in Lagos who uses sanyan cloth to explore ancestral memory. Another highlight is Temitayo Ogunbiyi, a Nigerian American artist based in Lagos who maps the relationships between Lagos’ many disparate communities. There will also be a focused exhibition of lesser-known photographs by J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere, the Nigerian cameraman renowned for his extensive documentation of Lagosian hairstyles, while The Library will host books from Yinka Shonibare’s G.A.S. Foundation and works by Bruce Onobrakpeya, the celebrated Nigerian printmaker. These commissions, Peterside affirms, will allow audiences to encounter ‘ambitious work that might not otherwise be possible in a purely commercial context’.

Other strands include Art Across Borders, curated by Jumoke Sanwo, which brings together artists under 50 from across Africa and the diaspora; ART X Cinema, who will screen Akinola Davies’ My Father’s Shadow (2025), the first Nigerian film to premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival; and ART X Live!, the fair’s music platform, which aims to ensure visitors will be dancing into the early hours to Afrobeat, jazz, and soul. ‘We wanted every part of the programme to signal dialogue between past and future, Lagos and the wider world,’ Peterside says.

Since 2016, the fair has connected artists from over 70 countries with global audiences and welcomed more than 700,000 visitors. This is despite security concerns. The fair is heavily fortified, with semi-automatic weapons not difficult to spot among the staff. The U.K.’s travel advice warns that ‘terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Nigeria’. The terrorist network Boko Haram’s activity is concentrated in the northeast, but risks are periodically raised in Lagos as well. The fair was also postponed in 2020 during the #ENDSARS campaign.

Nevertheless, Peterside argues that ART X has helped expand a rapidly developing collecting culture in the region and beyond: ‘There has been a shift from a purely Nigerian focus to a pan-African outlook. Collectors are increasingly identifying with a continental narrative, acquiring from Ghana, South Africa, Senegal and beyond.’

The growth of institutions such as the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) in Benin City, whose opening will coincide with the fair, and Shonibare’s G.A.S. Foundation, which opened in the spring of 2022 across two sites in Lagos and Ijebu, has also altered the landscape. Peterside recalls that when ART X launched, there were few spaces in Nigeria presenting museum-quality exhibitions, a lack which inspired the fair’s special projects programme. Now, visitors can combine a trip to the fair with visits to quality cultural spaces. Collaborations with both museums are in development. ART X Lagos has announced plans to support MOWAA with archival curation and to collaborate with the G.A.S. Foundation on workshops for emerging artists, although these initiatives are subject to ongoing discussion rather than confirmed programmes. ‘Our mission is unchanged: to champion African creativity at the highest level, both locally and globally,’ Peterside says. ‘That means a commitment to collaborating with these institutions to develop frameworks for curation and conservation from within Africa.’

The United Nations projects that by 2050 one in ten global births will be Nigerian. Peterside stresses the role of such a young demographic: ‘The youth bulge is shaping everything we do. I see Lagos moving from a so-called emerging hub into a globally competitive market.’ She argues that this generational shift will not only influence how art is made and consumed within Nigeria, but will also position Lagos as a key player in shaping collecting practices internationally. ‘The measure of success will not just be the top end,’ she says, ‘but the growth of diverse collector groups across the region.’ —[O]

ART X Lagos’ tenth edition takes place from 6 to 9 November 2025.

Main image: Schools programme at ART X Lagos 2024. Courtesy ART X Lagos.