Earth Tones, Red Heat, Packed Crowds: Inside Tony Nsofor's "Eje Ayọ"

By Udemma Chukwuma

In Line to Nowhere (Citizens of Nowhere series) 

Colour in Tony Nsofor’s paintings does what the crowded subjects cannot. The colours change from one painting to the next, and each canvas follows its own distinct scheme.

Beyond the Parade: Inside Carnival Calabar 2026

By Udemma Chukwuma

Calabar is preparing for a full month of festivities as Carnival Calabar returns in December 2026 under the theme Rethinking Our Collective Destiny. The annual celebration, widely promoted as Africa's biggest street party, brings together music, dance, costume, visual arts, fashion, food, traditional performances and community events, turning the Cross River State capital into one of Nigeria's major December destinations. 

Aké Arts and Book Festival Will Start On…

By Chisom Michael

Aké Arts and Book Festival is scheduled to be held from November 19 to 21in Lagos, Nigeria. The 14th edition will bring writers, poets, musicians, filmmakers and other creatives together for three days of conversation, readings and performance.

The theme is Native Intelligence, which the organisers frame as a question about whose intelligence the future is being built on. In an age of anxious talk about artificial intelligence, that is a sharp choice. It sets machine learning beside older, human ways of knowing, from oral tradition to community memory, and invites African writers and thinkers to say what they think of both.

The Book Buzz Foundation organises the festival, which was founded in 2012 and has hosted more than 1,000 writers, poets, musicians, actors, filmmakers, artists and thinkers. The guest list runs to more than 40

Felabration Starts Today! The Kuti Family Headlines a Full Week at the New Afrika Shrine

By Kemi Adeshina 

Title: Felasophy by Lemi Ghariokwu

Lagos is in Afrobeat mode this week. Felabration, the annual tribute to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, runs from October 12 to 18 at the New Afrika Shrine in Ikeja.

The headline slots stay in the family. Femi Kuti and The Positive Force, Made Kuti and Seun Kuti and the Egypt 80 as the main acts. Guest performers include the apala exponent Musiliu Haruna Ishola, Terry Apala, Atawewe and Ice Prince. Putting a roots-music veteran next to a contemporary rapper fits the spirit of the week, which has always treated Fela’s legacy as something that keeps moving rather than something to display behind glass.

SOGAL Art Auction to Take Place Remotely

By Joy Eke 

SOGAL Limited has announced the 12th edition of its modern and contemporary African art auction, titled Echoes of Legacy. This year's sale will be held entirely online, with no live room, so every bid will be placed remotely.

The title points to the idea that art carries the past into the present, and the sale is aimed at collectors and enthusiasts of modern and contemporary work from across the continent. Reaching a 12th edition also marks a long run for an auction house operating in Lagos.

27 Artists Pay Tribute to Yusuf Grillo, the Master of Masters

By Chisom Michael

The Yusuf Grillo Museum in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria, will open Lineage of Masters II: Continuity and Contemporary Expressions on Sunday, October 25, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. The exhibition is staged in honour of Yusuf Adebayo Grillo, whose name the museum carries, and it brings together 27 artists in a contemporary art show that runs for almost two months.

Tony Nsofor Brings Home Paintings From Six Cities to Lagos

By Chisom Michael

Lagos audiences will get a chance to see nearly a decade of work by painter Tony Nsofor when his homecoming exhibition opens at the National Museum, Onikan, Lagos, Nigeria, in November.

Why Obinna Adiele Turns Steel Wire into Faces and Heritage

By Udemma Chukwuma

Obinna Adiele, a Nigerian sculptor, builds his portraits from steel wire, and everything distinctive in his work follows from that choice. Rather than modelling a surface, he assembles one. Straight, uniform strands are laid side by side, cut, bent and welded into small woven planes, so each face reads as basketry given human features. On the cheeks, forehead and neck, the direction of the strands changes patch by patch, like parquet or plaited raffia, and the light breaks differently across every facet. Most pieces carry a dark gunmetal finish, which warms to copper and golden bronze in works such as Tangled in Tradition and Olileányà.

Apply Now: La Campagne Tropicana Free Art Residency Opens to Nigerian Artists

La Campagne Tropicana 

A beach resort in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria, will soon become a studio. La Campagne Tropicana has announced the first edition of its Art Residency, a two-month programme running from 5 February to 4 April 2027 and open to artists and artisans from across Nigeria.

Valentine Onyeka Ogunaka Takes "Framing for a Cause" to New York

By Udemma Chukwuma 

                                                                              Ogunaka

Nigerian creative strategist and poet Valentine Onyeka Ogunaka, who works professionally as Brainbox or OV Onyeka, is preparing to carry a Nigerian voice into a global conversation about how stories shape the way the world sees vulnerable people. According to the announcement, he will present his Framing for a Cause methodology at the Communicating for a Better World Conference in New York this October.