SIR ZANELE MUHOLI,

JUSTIN EBANDA, LINDOKUHLE KHUMALO

ART X LAGOS

CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART FAIR



04 - 21 NOVEMBER 2021

ART X Lagos was launched as a dynamic platform to showcase and support the breadth of contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. The fair, founded in 2016 by Tokini Peterside-Schwebig, has since become a cornerstone of the African art sector. The first of its kind in West Africa, ART X Lagos is a unique cultural event that goes beyond the traditional bounds of an art fair and delivers several days of dynamic art experiences, a happening now complemented virtually through ARTXLAGOS.COM.

Since its debut, ART X Lagos has grown to host galleries and artists from over 30 countries and become renowned for its ambitious program, which includes ART X Talks - a lively panel discussion series; ART X Live! - a one-of-a-kind showcase featuring collaborations between some of the fastest-rising artists and musicians on the African continent; as well as specially curated presentations and interactive projects. These programs have featured an array of emerging and established artists from the continent and diaspora, including keynote artists such as El Anatsui, Wangechi Mutu, Njideka Akunyili-Crosby, Yinka Shonibare CBE, and Hank Willis Thomas.

For its sixth edition – and its most ambitious fair to date – ART X Lagos presented a hybrid online/offline fair that brought together 120 artists from over 30 countries, presented by 30 leading international galleries - marking a period of growth despite the challenges wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic. Its physical fair, which opened on 4th November 2021, was the first in-person art fair to take place anywhere on the African continent since the pandemic struck. Amid reports of strong sales and enthusiastic attendance, it closed on 7th November. The online fair extended until 21st November.

ART X Lagos 2021 delivered an expanded program including ART X Talks, specially curated projects both in person and at the online fair, ART X Live!, and its first NFT exhibtiion in collaboration with the leading global NFT art platform, SuperRare.

The seventh edition of the fair will hold from 3 - 6 November 2022 in Lagos with an extension online.

LIYEMA, 2021, acrylique sur toile, 180 x 120 cm


PAINTINGS BY SIR ZANELE MUHOLI



Most known as a photographer, the visual activist Sir Zanele Muholi has been a multidisciplinary artist for a long time. As a practical response to confinement, Muholi continues their work of introspection by exploring the multiple identities and politics of Black LGBTQ people in South Africa through a series of recent paintings.  Muholi proposes to reinterpret portrait painting, a genre of painting that historically represents the rich and powerful. Through this game of mirrors, Muholi decides to shed light on the notion of gender. The subject is no longer Muholi but their intimate essence and their non-binarity.





JUSTIN EBANDA



His artistic approach questions the collective amnesia of the history of world leaders in general and of Africa in particular. (...) His works are fictional narratives that question the methods and means of transmission of collective memory, as well as the valorisation and popularisation of the original African cultural heritage. He paints the face of Africa in the future, giving the children of today and the leaders of tomorrow the opportunity to dream from the scope of the actions of yesterday's heroes.


There is a strong presence of WAX. What interests him in the Wax is its displacement in space and time, then its power of domination, of absorption of local fabrics. He therefore uses it as a metaphor for colonisation, given their common trajectories. He proceeds to deconstruction, to decolonisation, because at its core, the WAX is a colonial fabric. It carries a narrative set up by colonisation based on aesthetics (bright colours, geometric shapes).


Funny@memory.cm, 2021 acrylic on canvas, 144 x 120 cm
Umholi uzelwe, Leader is born, Acrylic paint on canvas, 160 x 128 cm, 2021


LINDOKUHLE KHUMALO



Lindokuhle Khumalo is an emerging artist part of the collective project Ikhono LaseNatali initiated by Sir Zanele Muholi in 2018. Khumalo’s art explores and brings awareness to socio-political topics and cultural issues within the African rural communities in particular. His work is basically an artistic reflection of the multi-layered social experiences, and a personal quest, exploring the current cultural values and partly visiting his Zulu spirituality.



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