5 WAYS AFFINITY ART GALLERY DOES IT DIFFERENT

Affinity Art Gallery is a Modern and Contemporary art gallery located in Lagos, Nigeria’s busiest and most inspirational city. Opened in 2020, Affinity Art gallery is dedicated to the promotion and celebration of artists who are passionately sharing the African narrative with their works. Through their diverse exhibitions, educational programs, institutional collaborations, and representation of emerging artists, the gallery intends to play a role in the support and advancement of Modern and Contemporary African art. The gallery functions as a beacon to educate and preserve Africa’s rich and diverse culture in a bid to inspire the next generation of young Africans. 1. Women-centric: Affinity Gallery is dedicated to championing the talents of African women artists from the continent and the diaspora. In furtherance of that mission, they just announced global representation of three diverse and multifaceted artists; Anne Adams, Damilola Onosowobo and Roanna Tella, who also happen to be women and whose works represent the evolution of art practices that have been entrenched in African history for decades. Each of them possesses a distinctive and refined perspective making their works, crucial elements in capturing and transforming the cultural zeitgeist surrounding African art.

2. Pan-African: As an organization, it is in the DNA and culture of the gallery to recognize the immense and sometimes under-valued impact of African art on the global art scene. Affinity Art Gallery aims to help correct that imbalance by showcasing not just Nigerian art but African art as a whole based on the tenets of UBUNTU, “I am because we are”.

3. Forward thinking / Future focused: Innovation and experimentation are two pillars that the gallery is built on and so there is a continuous search for ways to present art that change the inherent perceptions and biases of audiences. Beyond that, also encouraging and supporting the gallery’s artists to experiment, to evolve into new processes and practices, and to live new experiences that expand their oeuvre. Their upcoming presentation at ART X Lagos 2022 in November as well as their forthcoming 2023 calendar, is a testament to that ethos.

4. Highlighting emerging talent: It is well documented that there is vast array of talented African artists and not nearly enough platforms to champion their work, Affinity Art Gallery does it’s part by seeking out young talent from art programs around the world as well as issuing their first open call for emerging African artists that culminated in a successful exhibition in 2022. This open call has now been established as an annual occurrence.

5. Art education: The gallery has a robust budding art education program that invites children from schools around the city of Lagos to come experience the art in the gallery. By engaging the students with a tour, workshop, talks with the curator and artists, the gallery wants to open up their minds to the endless possibilities that art can provide.

New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty invited us to their newly opened National Exhibition Gallery to an event co-hosted by KNS Construction where we got an insight it to the current property market. We got all perspectives from the market, purchasing and selling point of view, building a home from scratch as well as renovating an existing home. The evening was concluded at Kingi, The Hotel Britomart, where we enjoyed a delicious dinner.