Every November, Lagos transforms into a living gallery, a city humming with color, conversation, and creativity. From the sunlit halls of Victoria Island to late-night studio talks, artists, collectors, and dreamers converge in celebration of Africa’s boldest ideas. At the heart of it all stands ART X Lagos, West Africa’s biggest art fair and a defining landmark on the continent’s creative calendar.
This year, from November 6 to 9, 2025, the fair returns to the Federal Palace for its 10th edition, marking a milestone in African cultural history. What began as an ambitious vision in 2016 has become a decade-long story of imagination and influence, one that has redrawn how the world views African art. And as the city prepares once again to open its doors to the world, ART X Lagos isn’t just hosting an exhibition; it’s curating a legacy.
The Birth of a Movement
When Tokini Peterside-Schwebig founded ART X Lagos in 2016, she wasn’t just building an art fair, she was starting a movement. Her mission was clear: to create a platform that would celebrate and elevate African and diasporic creativity on its own terms.
In its debut year, ART X gathered just 60 artists from across the continent, a modest beginning that carried a bold message: African art no longer needed permission to be seen. Nearly a decade later, that message has echoed across more than 170 nations, turning the fair into a global meeting point for artists, collectors, and cultural thinkers.
For Tokini, ART X Lagos emerged as a response to invisibility, a stage where Africa could define itself through its own lens. She has often said that African art deserves not charity, but curiosity, not tokenism, but real investment. Under her vision, ART X Lagos has become proof that when Africa tells its story, the world listens.
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What to Expect This Year
This November, ART X Lagos 2025 returns to its iconic home, the Federal Palace in Victoria Island, from November 6 to 9, bringing with it a vibrant convergence of art, sound, and storytelling. The 10th edition will spotlight some of Africa’s most compelling creative voices, from hyperrealist prodigy Arinze Stanley to the evocative brushstrokes of Sola Olulode and the minimalist elegance of Deborah Segun. Leading galleries including O’DA Art, Alexis Galleries, and Wunika Mukan Gallery will showcase a dynamic mix of established masters and daring newcomers who continue to shape Africa’s evolving visual language.
This year’s theme, “Resonance,” explores how African art echoes across borders, generations, and identities, tracing shared experiences that unite the continent and its diaspora. It’s an invitation to consider how creativity travels: through rhythm, memory, and imagination.
In a powerful gesture of cultural exchange, ART X Lagos extends its global reach through a partnership with Cité internationale des arts in Paris and the Embassy of France in Nigeria, fostering residencies and collaborations that bridge continents.
Visitors can also look forward to immersive programs like ART X Live! (a fusion of music and performance art), ART X Cinema, ART X Talks, and The Projects — alongside the Development Forum and Art Across Borders, which nurture the next generation of curators, collectors, and creators. Together, they reaffirm ART X Lagos not just as an exhibition, but as a living ecosystem of African expression.
The Pulse of Creativity: Highlights That Define ART X
At its core, ART X Lagos has always been more than an art fair, it’s a living conversation across disciplines, where creativity moves in rhythm and colour. The festival’s strength lies in its multidisciplinary DNA, merging art, music, film, design, and literature into a single, pulsating experience that captures the essence of modern Africa.
At ART X Live!, sound becomes sculpture. Musicians and visual performers collaborate to create electrifying sets that blur the line between concert and installation. ART X Cinema brings the continent’s stories to the big screen, showcasing films from a new generation of African storytellers who are redefining what it means to document truth and memory.
Meanwhile, ART X Talks has become a stage for some of Africa’s most important artistic voices. Past guests include El Anatsui, Njideka Akunyili-Crosby, Yinka Shonibare, and Wangechi Mutu, all sharing insights that continue to shape Africa’s creative landscape. And through the ART X Prize, young talents like Patrick Akpojotor, Dafe Oboro, and Chigozie Obi have gone from emerging artists to global names, proving that Lagos remains a fertile ground for visionaries.
This year’s theme, “Resonance,” encapsulates a decade of momentum, a symbol of how Lagos now beats in sync with Paris, Accra, Nairobi, and the diaspora, bound by shared imagination and artistic purpose. Picture it: the bustling halls of Federal Palace, collectors deep in conversation, art students sketching in corners, and the steady thrum of music rising from the ART X Live! stage.
Here, creativity isn’t displayed, it’s felt, heard, and lived. That’s the true pulse of ART X Lagos.
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The Legacy and The Future
In less than a decade, ART X Lagos has transformed the city into the art capital of West Africa, turning what was once a small creative circle into a thriving ecosystem. Its ripple effect birthed what many now call “Art Week” and “Art Season” in Nigeria — a period when galleries, collectors, and curators from across the world converge in Lagos to celebrate African creativity.
Beyond exhibitions, ART X has built a pipeline for the next generation. Through The Development Forum and The ART X Prize, emerging artists and curators have found mentorship, visibility, and access to international platforms. The result is a continent-wide network of bold new voices, each adding fresh layers to the African narrative.
Looking ahead, the next decade promises to redefine what art means in a digital age, from immersive experiences and NFT storytelling to global residencies like Resonance, connecting African creators to audiences across borders.
Lagos Comes Alive Again
This November More than a fair, ART X Lagos has become a movement, proving that art is Africa’s universal language, a canvas where memory meets possibility, and where every stroke carries the promise of a new story yet to be told.
And as the world turns its gaze once more to Lagos, one truth resounds: when Africa tells its own stories through art, it doesn’t just reclaim the narrative, it redefines it.
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