Lagos Gallery Weekend Is An Integral Cog In The Art Ecosystem

If you were an artist trying to depict the essence of Lagos, Nigeria, what would you create? Sunshine Alaibe would grab a blank canvas and splatter different colours on it. There would be streaks and blobs of pinks, blues, yellows and greens. It will be eclectic and chaotic, but beautiful. 

The city’s energy has been documented in different forms. While many intimately know Lagos through its food, music, fashion and traffic, not many have been able to experience it through its art. The galleries are not a constant feature in people’s lives, they are a destination for the odd days where everything feels prosaic. But even when those days surface, there are only a handful of locations that people visit to feel something. This leaves a large number of institutions in the industry as a hidden gem, known only to those whose lives revolve around it. 

Visibility is necessary for a visual industry to thrive, so when Lagos Gallery Weekend (LGW) Director, Sunshine Alaibe was faced with the decision to let the initiative die out after its first edition, or to take it on and expand it, she chose the latter. From the 28th to 30th of March 2025, Lagos came alive for the second edition of LGW themed Discover Lagos Through Art,  a movement that spotlights galleries and cultural institutions whose hard work often goes unnoticed. With twenty art galleries participating, including Rélé, O’DA Art, Sachs Gallery, Kó Art Space, and five cultural institutions including CA, JK Randle Centre, Yemisi Shyllon Museum, Grillo Art, Alliance Francais and Goethe Institute, the weekend was a celebration of art in its various forms. 

The success of LGW was made possible by the entities that value the power of collaboration. In addition to twenty five of them that participated in LGW, the weekend was also flourished by the +234 Art Fair, an elaborate showcase of contemporary Nigerian art. Last year, LGW and +234 Art Fair occurred at the extreme start and end of March respectively, but this year, the organisations formed a strategic partnership, operating on the same weekend and splitting marketing efforts to bolster the entire ecosystem. 

Culture Custodian spoke to Alaibe about the importance of an initiative like LGW, the impact on the art ecosystem and her vision for the future of the initiative. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. 

Tell me about that moment you realized that an initiative like Lagos Gallery weekend was necessary and what exactly inspired you to curate something like this?

So I would give credit to Charlotte Langhorst. She actually started the initiative last year. It was meant to be gallerist-led. So it was herself, Nadine from Goethe, Obida from O’da Arts, Ugonna from Yenwa, and another individual. She had basically spearheaded the project but brought them on as advisors. It ran for the first year with 10 galleries and I approached them in an attempt to be media partner, but after the planning went a bit south, she decided she didn’t want to do it anymore and the team itself somewhat disintegrated, so I had asked to take the project on and pretty much carry the vision on, in fact, expand the vision slightly, adding more galleries and more cultural institutions to the roster.

The theme, Discover Lagos Through Art, was us looking at Lagos as a creative hub and a landscape for art. It wasn’t meant to be gallerist-led, but it allowed the galleries to do their thing while someone else who’s embedded in the art space invited the masses to experience the galleries’ creative expression.

Image provided by Lagos Gallery Weekend

When the initial iteration disintegrated, why did you want to take it on? How come you didn’t also let it die down?

Because the first time, it worked very well for the galleries. At that time, I actually worked for a gallery space and it helped us. Foot traffic wise, we had a lot of people coming in at that time. 

What was beautiful about it was that the 10 galleries last year had something going on and there was information being shared. There were people coming into the space for the first time, not necessarily coming to purchase, but coming to get inspired. There were so many more things that people could benefit from opening the galleries all at the same time in a weekend that isn’t normally considered Art Week. When people aren’t expecting to see so much, but then are pleasantly surprised to stumble into a gallery they had never even heard about before. I just felt like it made sense.

And I think there are so many businesses right now that are not being credited for the work that they do, and I’ve been in places where we’ve done so much and nobody knows. So as I was physically at the gallery space that I worked at last year, I’m like this only makes sense to continue even if it’s just for five galleries that have more visibility. Even if it’s one person who benefits, or it’s one student who has the inspiration to go into the arts, let it be that. But the point is, let the city come alive more than one time in the year.

This year’s edition was 20 galleries and 5 institutions. I imagine organizing that would be a madness. Can you talk me through that process?

So, because I’ve been in the art space for almost 10 years now, and I know a majority of the individuals that are in the industry, it wasn’t hard letting them know that this was happening again. It was also great that it had happened last year, so it wasn’t like I was expressing a new idea. They, of course, wanted to know what they were receiving and, just so you know, none of the galleries or cultural institutions had to pay this year. They just had to participate, and so it was about “What do we have to do?” “How does it align?” 

It was a lot of preparation. We had 3 months to plan it, and I would admit it was a short period. Some people already knew I had taken on the project, but I think getting them to send information, send the artists work, all of those things, took time.

There were some people that had their permanent collection. Obviously all the museums pretty much had permanent collections, but for the smaller galleries that have to put on new exhibitions, that was a little more tricky. I wouldn’t lie, it was difficult, but anything worth doing will be difficult. 

Image provided by Lagos Gallery Weekend

How would you describe your experience organizing this edition?

I love organizing anything. It’s my strong suit. It gives me joy and, you know, It was a challenge, but I would do it again happily because I mean, why not? It really was just getting everyone coordinated and putting a team together that was equipped to make sure that all can be done at the same time. It was just a matter of being very organized, that’s it. Like I said,If it’s going to be done well, it’s going to be difficult, especially in Nigeria. So I already knew that would happen.

Now that Lagos Gallery Weekend has officially wrapped up, what would you like people to take away from this experience? 

Generally being very inspired by the creative landscape that is Lagos. You often only have one lens of what art is, because you only visit one or two locations. If you’re able to go to a White Cube gallery space in terms of its architecture, you will only see that, right? But if I’ve given you a plethora of options where some galleries with permanent collection have artwork all over their walls, then I send you Tiwani that only has 6 pieces on a wall, but are well curated, then I send you to a museum where you see a full expression of Yoruba culture, you get such a great education that it’s not just one way that you experience and appreciate art. You can experience and appreciate it in many ways. If you’re an artist, if you’re a cultural enthusiast, if you’re a collector, whatever you are. You actually get to experience so much more that the city has to offer, and also really get to meet the individuals who have done so much for the industry that you may not even know.

Over the weekend, what was that one interaction that solidified the importance of this initiative?

I think the students who came from Yaba Tech. We had a bus that was sponsored by one of our sponsors that took students from Yaba  Tech to our Southeast Lagos tour, along with +234. Although their tour was later in the day, they absolutely love it. It made me so happy because they were like “I’ve never seen anything like this.” They only went to 4 galleries and +234, but they were just so happy. One of them was like, “I’m gonna start creating new work. This is so inspiring. I didn’t know art could be like this.” I purposely sent them on that tour because it was such an unconventional tour.

They went to Sachs gallery, Wunika Mukan gallery, Affinity and Nike. And of course, Nike is like a household name – you can go hours and you’ll still find something you haven’t seen upstairs at the back of some random piece. You’ll see a piece that’s just so crazy, and then +234 was a great expression of contemporary art from artists who have never shown their work before in such a huge space, accompanied by artists who have been working for years.

So on both legs, it was really inspiring for me because I didn’t know that they love it so much and I didn’t know the effect that it would have on them and in turn on me to know that the next generation of individuals who love the arts can actually be educated from this experience.

Image provided by Lagos Gallery Weekend

Did you get a chance to have your own tour? Which exhibition stood out to you the most? 

So I conducted a tour. There was someone I had to take around from +234. She works at an art fair in Chicago and she was here as one of the facilitators of +234. I had her on my tour along with some other art enthusiasts, and it was called the Art Pathfinders tour.

I had taken them around, given them a crash course of what Lagos Gallery Weekend is and what it intends to bring, along with what our other tour guides were doing, but I think it was just even more personable because I was the one doing it.

I went around the galleries that were on that tour, I even got to +234 which was our last stop, but what I learned with everybody on our tour is that they naturally don’t do this in Lagos very often.

They don’t hop from place to place. It’s just not convenient unless you are in a curated thing. There are so many factors that deter you from going around the city, so we’re trying to see how we can do this once a month, cause typically there are some galleries that open shows around the same weekend, right? And only the ecosystem, people who are artists or people who know the galleries will know that they can go to three exhibitions in one Saturday. So we want to make sure that we can accommodate those who don’t typically have the time or don’t even have the knowledge.

You have spoken about this loosely, but what is your long-term vision for Lagos Gallery Weekend? 

Create opportunities for a lot of people to see and appreciate art. It’s an industry that is quite small, and one that needs more eyes and even more funding and more support from the government. There needs to be visibility for the arts, and then from there everything else can be birthed.

I want to create that opportunity for people to come to places. You need to see more of the arts. That’s it for now. In the future, I’m hoping that we engage maybe 100, 150 galleries and cultural institutions, even the ones that are to be open. I want to engage everybody. I’m hoping that the platform will become even more of a needed resource that will travel not just in Lagos, but to Port Harcourt, to Abuja, to all the different nations where art exists. And I’m hoping that it’s just one of those things where if somebody asks, “how do you make money in Nigeria,” it’s not just with the oil and gas industry or the banking industry or tech, it will be arts. People know it already, but I want our government to also see it as something that is viable, it’s living and it’s growing, and it’s not going to stop.

P.S Although the gallery weekend is over, Lagos Gallery Weekend will continue to serve as a guide for art in Lagos. Their website will be updated with exhibitions and galleries open throughout the year.