Lagos once again affirmed its place as a global cultural capital, as ART X Lagos 2025 marked its tenth anniversary with a four-day celebration of African innovation and pride.
Held from November 6–9 under the theme “Imagining Otherwise, No Matter the Tide,” the landmark edition featured 15 curated galleries, new Spotlight sections, a Paris residency programme, and a historic exhibition of 200 photographs by the late J.D. Okhai Ojeikere.
The fair attracted dignitaries such as Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Minister of Finance Wale Edun, and France’s Ambassador Marc Fonbaustier, highlighting its growing diplomatic and economic impact. Over 170 countries were represented at ART X Lagos 2025.
Founder Tokini Peterside-Schwebig describes the milestone as “a call to look beyond present challenges, using imagination to shape urban futures and collective action.”
Oozing with an indescribable blend of creativity through the exploration of various art forms, the Federal Palace Hotel, the event venue, was transformed into a sprawling gallery.
The occasion also celebrated the creative genius and titan, J.D. Okhai Ojeikere. According to Peterside-Schwebig, celebrating J.D. Okhai Ojeikere’s creative mastery meant digging far into the past to capture the elements of nationhood not just for the sake of nostalgia but to inspire the next generation of young people, including the students who were involved in the 2025 schools programme.
“For the exhibition, you will see images of students in Ibadan in the 1950s, looking powerful in the 1960s and 1970s. J.D. Okhai Ojeikere is known for his hairstyle series exhibited all over the world, but the world has not seen these other images by him. It took us going to meet his family, the custodians of thousands of physical negatives, not digital images. Our curators went through 6,000 physical negatives to produce this exhibition of 200 artworks to try and contextualise six decades of work by this iconic Nigerian who decided to dedicate his life to documenting the reality as he saw it and the power of his country and his people,” she enthused.
Arts enthusiasts can hardly believe it’s been ten years since ART X Lagos was born. Like Fine wine, which tastes better with age, over the past decade, the fair has welcomed more than 700,000 visitors from over 170 countries, playing a vital role in cementing Lagos as one of the world’s most vibrant cultural capitals.
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