Visitors engage with a contemporary sculpture during ART X Lagos, highlighting the fair’s focus on artistic discovery and public engagement. Image: ART X Lagos
Discover ART X Lagos, its history, artists, galleries, programs, and its role in the growth of contemporary African art and the Lagos art market.
BY KAZEEM ADELEKE, ARTCENTRON
ART X Lagos is an international contemporary art fair in Lagos, Nigeria, that connects artists, galleries, collectors, curators, cultural institutions, and audiences from Africa and around the world. Founded by Tokini Peterside-Schwebig in 2016, the fair has developed into an important platform for contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. The next edition is scheduled for November 5–8, 2026.
More than an art marketplace, ART X Lagos brings together exhibitions, talks, film, music, performance, education, and special projects. This multidisciplinary approach reflects the energy of Lagos and its wider creative economy. It also gives visitors several ways to engage with contemporary African art beyond buying and selling artworks.
Over the past decade, ART X Lagos has helped connect Lagos with international art networks. According to the fair’s own tenth-anniversary account, its programs have reached more than 700,000 visitors online and in person from over 170 countries and featured more than 500 artists from at least 70 countries.
What Is ART X Lagos?
ART X Lagos is an annual international contemporary art fair held in Lagos, Nigeria. Founded in 2016, it brings together galleries, artists, collectors, curators, museums, and cultural professionals from Africa and the diaspora.
ART X Lagos describes itself as the premier international art fair in West Africa. Its program combines gallery presentations with exhibitions, talks, film, music, performance, and initiatives that support emerging artists and curators.
This makes the fair different from a conventional commercial art fair. Visitors can encounter gallery presentations alongside cultural programs and critical conversations.
The fair also operates within Lagos’s wider art ecosystem. Its activities connect with galleries, museums, independent spaces, studios, collectors, and other creative industries across the city.
The Origins and Evolution of ART X Lagos
ART X Lagos launched in 2016 when international interest in contemporary African art was growing. Tokini Peterside-Schwebig founded the fair to create a major international platform for contemporary art in Lagos.
The timing was significant. Africa already had established art events, including the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, FNB Art Joburg, and Dak’Art. Lagos, however, had no comparable international contemporary art fair.
The city offered strong foundations for such an event. Nigeria had a growing community of collectors, an active gallery sector, a large creative economy, and a long history of modern and contemporary artistic production.
ART X Lagos also developed within a cultural landscape shaped by influential curators and institutions. Bisi Silva, founder of the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, played an important role in developing contemporary art discourse in Nigeria. ARTCENTRON’s recent article on Bisi Silva and the legacy of CCA Lagos provides further context on her curatorial work and institutional influence.
In its first edition, ART X Lagos also invited cultural curators across Lagos to program around the fair. That initiative helped spark the art week and art season that later became an important part of Nigeria’s cultural calendar.
ART X Lagos Timeline
- 2016: ART X Lagos launches in Lagos.
- 2017–2019: The fair expands its gallery participation, programming, and international profile.
- 2020: ART X Lagos marks its fifth anniversary.
- 2025: The fair celebrates its tenth anniversary.
- 2026: The next edition is scheduled for November 5–8, 2026.
The fair’s archive now covers editions from 2016 through 2025. It also documents projects, exhibitors, talks, performances, films, and other programs.
Why Lagos Matters to the African Art Market
Lagos occupies a distinctive position in Africa’s cultural landscape. Its influence comes from the interaction of many creative industries rather than from one institution or market.
A Growing Collector Community
Nigeria has a substantial community of private art collectors. Business leaders, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and younger collectors have contributed to demand for contemporary Nigerian and African art.
Local collecting matters because it gives artists and galleries a market closer to home. It can also help artists develop careers without relying entirely on international audiences. The event adds another point of contact between local collectors and the international art world.
A Strong Gallery Ecosystem
Lagos has a growing network of commercial galleries and independent art spaces. These organizations represent artists, produce exhibitions, support research, and connect Nigerian practices with international audiences. They also provide an important bridge between artists, collectors, curators, and institutions.
The fair’s own exhibitor archive shows the range of galleries that have participated over the years, including Nigerian and international galleries.
Cross-Disciplinary Creative Industries
Lagos does not separate visual art neatly from music, fashion, film, architecture, design, publishing, or digital culture.
ART X Lagos reflects this environment through programs that cross disciplinary boundaries. ART X Live!, for example, connects music and visual art, while ART X Cinema focuses on artistically driven independent African filmmaking. This relationship gives the fair a distinctly Lagosian character.
What to Expect at ART X Lagos
The art fair offers more than commercial gallery booths. Its program changes from year to year, but several strands have become central to its identity. For the latest program information, visitors should consult the official ART X Lagos program.
Gallery Presentations
Galleries present established and emerging artists working across painting, sculpture, photography, installation, textiles, ceramics, digital media, and mixed media. The gallery model also gives visitors a direct way to discover artists represented by African and international galleries.
ART X Lagos works directly with galleries representing artists. According to the fair, individual artists do not apply directly to exhibit at the fair. Gallery participation takes place by invitation based on nominations from the Selection Committee.
ART X Talks
This section of the art fair creates space for conversations about contemporary African art and wider cultural issues.
Past speakers have included major artists and cultural figures. The program has explored collecting, artistic practice, institutions, technology, and questions about Africa’s place in global culture.
The talks help position ART X Lagos as a place for critical exchange as well as commerce.
ART X Cinema
This event expands the fair into moving image and filmmaking.
The program presents films by artists and filmmakers from Africa and its diaspora. It gives audiences another way to engage with contemporary cultural production beyond the gallery setting.
ART X Live!
This section of the event brings music and visual art together. The program reflects the close relationship between Lagos’s music and art scenes. It also shows how contemporary cultural events can move between disciplines.
Special Projects and Commissions
ART X Lagos has presented ambitious projects that move beyond the conventional gallery booth.
These projects give artists room to explore installation, performance, sound, public space, and other experimental approaches. Past projects have addressed subjects ranging from Lagos’s urban environment to memory, history, identity, and social change.
Art Across Borders
Art Across Borders highlights artists from different parts of the African continent and creates opportunities for cross-regional exchange.
The initiative has been developed in partnership with Afreximbank and reflects the art fair’s wider interest in connecting creative communities across Africa.
The Access ART X Prize
The program supports emerging artists in Africa and the diaspora.
The program provides selected early-career artists funding and tailored mentoring to develop ambitious projects. ART X Lagos describes the prize as an initiative designed to help emerging artists advance their practices and careers.
This support matters because a healthy art ecosystem needs mechanisms for developing new talent, not only platforms for established artists.
The Development Forum
The Development Forum addresses professional issues within the African art ecosystem.
It therefore complements the commercial side of the fair with professional and educational exchange.
Schools’ Program
ART X Lagos also reaches younger audiences through its Schools’ Programme. The programs included workshops in Lagos schools, student competitions, exhibitions, and visits to the fair. Its 2025 edition worked with students from underserved communities and used the practices of Nigerian modern masters J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere and Bruce Onobrakpeya as part of its educational framework.
This educational work broadens the fair’s audience beyond collectors and art professionals.
Artists Associated With ART X Lagos
ART X Lagos has presented artists at different stages of their careers.
Its tenth-anniversary account identifies artists such as El Anatsui, Njideka Akunyili-Crosby, Yinka Shonibare CBE, Wangechi Mutu, and Ibrahim Mahama among the artists featured through the fair’s history.
The fair’s wider ecosystem has also included artists such as Peju Alatise and Victor Ehikhamenor.
ARTCENTRON’s coverage of Peju Alatise and Flying Girls examines the artist’s engagement with the experiences of girls in Nigeria. The publication has also profiled Victor Ehikhamenor, tracing his development as a Nigerian artist working across painting, installation, writing, and photography. Together, these examples reflect the diversity of approaches and practices within Nigeria’s contemporary art scene.
Further context comes from ARTCENTRON’s feature on young African artists, which discusses practitioners including Ehikhamenor and Alatise and the growing international attention surrounding a younger generation of African artists. The fair’s archive complements this coverage by providing a broader record of artists, exhibitors, projects, and programs across its editions.
Lagos as an Artistic Subject
Lagos does more than host ART X Lagos. The city itself frequently becomes part of the artistic conversation. Its architecture, markets, traffic, waterways, neighborhoods, music, and rapidly changing urban landscape provide artists with a rich field of material.
Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh, for example, has explored Lagos through sound and installation. His multisensory work Ojuelegba draws on the sounds and rhythms of one of the city’s busiest districts.
ARTCENTRON’s coverage of Emeka Ogboh’s Ojuelegba shows how Lagos can become both subject and medium in contemporary art. This relationship between city and art helps explain why Lagos has become such an important setting for contemporary African cultural production.
ART X Lagos and the Global Contemporary Art Market
The international market for contemporary African art has expanded over the past decade. Museums, galleries, foundations, auction houses, and private collectors have increased their engagement with artists from Africa and the diaspora. This growth has created new opportunities while also raising questions about representation, market access, provenance, collecting, and institutional responsibility.
ART X Lagos operates within this wider network.
Market Discovery
The fair allows collectors to encounter galleries working directly within African and diasporic contexts. This can provide an alternative to discovering African artists only through European or North American intermediaries.
Institutional Networking
Museum professionals, curators, researchers, and cultural organizations can use art fairs as meeting points. The fair creates opportunities for these groups to encounter artists, galleries, and practices operating within the region.
Regional Market Development
A strong international fair can help galleries build relationships beyond their domestic markets.
It also encourages dialogue among galleries, collectors, artists, institutions, and cultural organizations across Africa.
International Visibility
Participation in a major fair can introduce artists and galleries to new audiences. It can also create connections that extend into exhibitions, residencies, biennials, research, and international representation.
ARTCENTRON’s coverage of the Bonhams Africa Now auction provides an earlier example of the growing international market for Nigerian and African artists. The article reports strong results for Nigerian artists at the London sale, including works by Ben Enwonwu, Yusuf Grillo, and Peju Alatise.
These auction developments form part of the wider market context in which ART X Lagos operates.
ART X Lagos and the Growth of Contemporary African Art
The significance of ART X Lagos extends beyond sales. The fair provides a platform for artists to address questions that matter both locally and internationally. These include urban transformation, migration, climate, gender, memory, technology, identity, spirituality, and colonial history.
Contemporary African artists do not work from one artistic tradition. Their practices can draw from local histories while engaging with global artistic languages. This diversity challenges the idea that African art should fit into a single category.
Artists across the continent work in painting, sculpture, photography, installation, film, performance, textiles, sound, and digital media. The art fair reflects this range through its multidisciplinary programming.
Why ART X Lagos Matters to Artists and Collectors
Artists need more than visibility to build sustainable careers. They also need galleries, curators, institutions, critics, collectors, educators, and audiences. The fair brings many of these groups into the same environment. Its programs for emerging artists and creative professionals reinforce that ecosystem.
The Access ART X Prize supports early-career artists, while the Development Forum addresses professional questions within the creative sector. The art fair also participates in RESONANCE, a residency program developed with the Cité internationale des arts in Paris and the Embassy of France in Nigeria/Institut Français du Nigeria. The program supports visual artists, designers, and curators based in Nigeria.
The 2026 RESONANCE cohort includes curator Sada Malumfashi, visual artist Timilehin Osanyintolu, and designer Orinayo Odubawo. For collectors, the fair provides direct access to galleries and artists working across African and diasporic contexts. It also offers an opportunity to encounter artistic practices within their local cultural settings.
ART X Lagos and Lagos Art Week
The fair has helped strengthen Lagos’s annual art season. The fair’s organizers say their 2016 invitation to Lagos curators to program around the event contributed to the development of the city’s art week and art season.
Today, the wider Lagos Art Week program includes exhibitions, studio visits, gallery events, museum programs, and other cultural activities across the city. ART X Lagos maintains a dedicated Lagos Art Week guide highlighting events around the fair. This wider ecosystem gives visitors more reasons to explore Lagos beyond the fair itself.
ART X Lagos 2026: Dates and What to Know
The next edition of ART X Lagos takes place from November 5–8, 2026. Visitors should check the official ART X Lagos website for the latest information about exhibitors, programs, attendance, and announcements.
The fair’s current program includes strands such as ART X Cinema, ART X Live!, Art Across Borders, ART X ICON, and the Access ART X Prize.
The official exhibitor archive is also useful for tracking participating galleries. Current listings include galleries such as Adegbola Gallery, Affinity Gallery, Afriart Gallery, KÓ, Nike Art Gallery, O’DA Art, SMO Contemporary, Tiwani Contemporary, Wunika Mukan Gallery, and others. Because program details can change, this section should be updated each year before the fair.
ART X Lagos in the Contemporary African Art Landscape
The fair has become an important part of the contemporary African art landscape. Since its launch in 2016, the fair has connected Lagos with international networks of artists, galleries, collectors, curators, museums, and cultural organizations. Its programming has also expanded beyond the traditional art-fair model.
That broader approach reflects Lagos itself. The city’s art scene intersects with music, fashion, film, design, architecture, literature, technology, and entrepreneurship. ART X Lagos therefore matters for more than the artworks displayed inside its galleries. It provides a meeting point for ideas, markets, institutions, and creative practices.
Its development also reflects wider changes in the global art world. African artists and diasporic artists are receiving greater international attention, while collectors and institutions are engaging with a broader range of practices.
The future of art fair will depend in part on how effectively it continues to support artists, strengthen regional networks, develop audiences, and create meaningful international exchange. For visitors, collectors, artists, and researchers, the fair offers an important entry point into the changing cultural landscape of Lagos and contemporary African art.
The next edition is scheduled for November 5–8, 2026.
ART X Lagos: Frequently Asked Questions
What is ART X Lagos?
ART X Lagos is an annual international contemporary art fair in Lagos, Nigeria. Founded in 2016 by Tokini Peterside-Schwebig, it brings together galleries, artists, collectors, curators, cultural organizations, and audiences from Africa and around the world.
When is ART X Lagos 2026?
This year’s is scheduled for November 5–8, 2026. Visitors should check the official website for the latest program and attendance information.
Where is ART X Lagos held?
The art fair is held in Lagos, Nigeria. The fair also forms part of the city’s wider art season, with galleries, studios, museums, and cultural organizations presenting exhibitions and events around the same period.
Who attends ART X Lagos?
The fair attracts artists, collectors, gallery professionals, curators, museum professionals, cultural organizations, academics, journalists, designers, and members of the public interested in contemporary art and culture.
How does ART X Lagos support emerging artists?
The art event supports emerging artists through its initiatives. The prize provides selected artists with funding and tailored mentoring to develop ambitious projects.
Is ART X Lagos open to the public?
The fair is designed to engage audiences beyond the professional art market. Alongside gallery presentations, the fair offers public-facing talks, film, music, educational programs, and other cultural activities. Visitors should check the official site for current attendance information.