Nigeria, the land of plenty

Oluseye and Lakin Ogunbanwo: Project One November 3rd was the first day of ART X. Still under the leadership of Tokini Peterside, it opened with an afternoon reserved to collectors and an evening to VIPs. Same location as the ART X Lagos first edition , with equal parking inferno, but somehow the same old trick worked to park right by the building. A great show this year, largely dominated by Nigerian artists and galleries. However South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Francophone Africa were also represented. Most importantly for the VIPs, Perrier-Jouet was a sponsor and their champagne was served chilled from their beautiful bottles adorned with art-deco flowers.  Ben Enwonwu's 1960 wooden sculptures commissioned by the Daily Mirror On the ground floor, seven Ben Enwonwu's wooden statues, carved in the 60s for the Daily Mirror, were presented for the first time to the public, courtesy of Access Bank. They represented newspaper readers. Interestingly from afar they had a...

Art X at Civic Center On the first Friday night of November in Lagos, at the Civic Center, an unusual buzzing was going on with a collection fancy cars attempting to enter the exiguous parking lot by the water side. In the end cars we moving out of the parking lot after having delivered their passengers at the red carpet entrance of the first international contemporary art fair in Lagos called ART X . Friday night was the preview night for acknowledged potential buyers or influencers. Drivers went away through the evening traffic to park in some nearby improvised car park or perhaps line-up on the road until the time they would be called to pick-up their passengers again. Well, as usual, there is always a way to find a parking space where "no parking" signs are put. Just promise the guards that there will be something for them and they creatively come up a some space by moving way the signs. "Bros, can you find us some space, there is something for you" would...