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Month: April 2016

Nigeria’s Booming Art Market

Posted on by arthouse

(CNN)Amid strong demand and skyrocketing prices, contemporary African art is increasingly attracting the attention of investors worldwide.

While that might irk the purest at heart among some art collectors, it is a testament to the growing interest that African artists have spurred on the international markets.
British auction house Bonhams has seen average lot prices increase 5-fold — to about $50,000 — since it started specializing in contemporary African art in 2007.
ArtHouse Contemporary Limited, an auction house based in Lagos, Nigeria, notes that pieces bought at their very first auction, back in 2008, have increased up to 10-fold in value today.
The trend falls within a general rise in value for African art as a whole — Sotheby’s, whose auctions currently combine African and Oceanic art, took in an “outstanding” $84 million in 2014, compared to just $4 million a decade ago. They are now considering specialized sales for African art alone.

From nothing to millions

You’d be hard pressed to find a man who has witnessed the rise in recognition and value of African art better than Prince Yemisi Shyllon, who is reported to be Nigeria’s largest private art collector.
“When I started collecting art as an undergraduate at university in the mid 1970s, it had virtually no value,” he told CNN.
“You could buy a piece of good art for 20,000 Naira [about $100 at current conversion rates]. Today it would sell for millions.”
He now has about 7,000 pieces, which he displays in his house in Lagos.
“I’ve studied the movement of the prices of artwork sold in auctions in Nigeria since 1999,” he said. “And I can tell you how much the artworks have grown over time, of different artists — if we draw a correlation analysis we come up with a positive graph about the growth, and therefore it can form a solid basis for investment.”

Africans buy African art

At least half of the contemporary African art sales registered at auctions worldwide are believed to come from buyers within the continent, chiefly Nigeria and South Africa.
“Nigeria has the largest population, it’s the largest economy and oil producer today,” Kavita Chellaram, chief executive at ArtHouse Contemporary Limited, told CNN.
“Half the billionaires of Africa live between Nigeria and South Africa, so I think the prominence of the art here is quite relevant to the financial market.”
Experts also cite the strong growth of African economies and the rising wealth of the middle class as leading factors in the surge of interest around contemporary African art
Giles Peppiatt, director of contemporary African Art auctions at Bonhams, says his numbers confirm the investment appeal of African art, even though the average prices are still reasonable: “I think that in the African sales, the majority of the works sell between $10,000 and $60,000.
“It’s still relatively modest, and that’s healthy, because it means it’s a market where new entrants can come in. I think it’s a 10th of the entry price of some other markets, but that’s to be expected because it’s a very new one.”

Global interest

The rise in fame of contemporary African artists on the international stage is also starting to fuel solo exhibitions abroad, such as the one offered by the Brooklyn Museum in 2013 on Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui, whose “New World Map” went for a record £541,250 at auction in 2012.
Yet, it’s not easy to decode why the trend has exploded only just recently.
According to Peppiatt, there are two reasons: “Until about 15 years ago there was no email, there was virtually no internet and you can’t do these sales without modern communication.
“I also think it has to do with the general globalization of the art world. People are now much more used to seeing other cultures’ art at auction.”
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Ghanaian artist El Anatsui.

A bright future

At the moment, large international players such as Bonhams still hold their events in Europe or the U.S. “I think it’ll be a while before we start auctioning works in situ in Africa,” said Peppiatt.
“We have offices in Lagos and Johannesburg, I think it will remain that way for a bit. There’s also the advantage that there’s a whole structure of art dealing and art selling is here in London — the restorers, the conservators, the transport, the shippers, the packers. Everything is here and it’s very easy for people to buy and sell in London.”
Yet. ArtHouse Contemporary, who hold their auctions in Lagos, are noticing encouraging local trends: “There’s much more awareness,” said Chellaram. “People all over Nigeria and Africa today are looking towards art, and in fact Kenya has opened an auction house, Uganda’s having an auction this year, so there is a bit of a domino effect in Africa,” she continued. “Auctions can provide a platform to showcase African art to the world.”
And according to Prince Yemisi Shyllon, who’s planning to open a private art museum in Lagos, the fundamental role of art should not be overshadowed by the investment appeal: “I don’t believe collections should just be about collecting and enjoying art. I think it should go beyond just collecting — it should go into the element of propagating the culture or the heritage of the people and way of life of the people.
“Not only that, it should finally go to the extent of creating a legacy.”
More from Marketplace Africa

 

Expanding future with four Artists at Arthouse

Posted on by arthouse

Dipo Doherty, Olumide Onadipe, Tyna Adebowale and Jelili Atiku are the recipients of Arthouse Foundation’s 2016 Residency. To expand the scope of their skills, the artists will start arriving for a two-month residency programme from tomorrow.

Arthouse Foundation, which was announced two years ago, appears to be blazing another trail in re-energising the Nigerian, perhaps, by extension, African visual arts space. It is a branch of West Africa’s premiere art auction house, Arthouse Contemporary Limited.

A not-for-profit initiative, the Foundation comes at a period when the Nigerian art is finding new levels on the international art space.

The residency, according to curator at Arthouse Foundation, Joseph Gergel, is sectionalised into two phases: Doherty and Onadipe for April 18 to June 22, while Adebowale and Atiku will enjoy theirs from September 12 to December 16.

Quietly, the Foundation has sponsored Nigerian artists to residency outside Nigeria. Tayo Olayode and Uche Joel Chima are beneficiaries of such gesture, which had the artists on residency to Vermont, U.S. Currently, the first Arthouse Resident artist, Victor Ekpuk, is showing his solo titled, Coming Home, an exhibition from the residency programme. Ekpuk had his residency in Lagos last year at a temporary facility of Arthouse near the promoters’ office.

“With a newly renovated building in the heart of Ikoyi, it offers live/work residencies for two artists throughout the year in three-month sessions,” Gergel disclosed. “The Foundation aims to encourage creative development of contemporary art in Nigeria by providing a platform for artists to expand their practice and experiment with new forms and ideas.”

Details of the residency include, offer of a live/work studio, art materials and logistical support for the creation of a new artistic project, for each artist, during their residency. Other benefits include an intensive public initiative throughout each residency, including an artist’s talk, workshop, open studios and roundtable discussion.

For each of the artists, the big one is an opportunity to share the proceeds of the residency with the public in art exhibition to be organised by the Foundation. The exhibition is expected to hold at the end of the year.

Ahead of the residency proper, the first public event is Meet the Artists, holding on Saturday, April 23, at the Foundation house, off Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos. Described as informal gathering, Meet the Artists, “will allow the public to learn about the residents’ artistic practice and plans for their project during the residency.”

Excerpts from Doherty’s biography shows that he was born in 1991. He is a painter whose work explores the language of spatial geometry, with a focus on the depiction of the self and the human form.

Binding together a dynamic set of styles and motifs, Doherty creates abstracted figures that give expression to emotional, cultural and scientific energies. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Doherty has held recent solo exhibitions at Red Door Gallery and Nike Art Gallery in Lagos.

Onadipe was born in 1982. He is a sculptor, who engages experimental processes that involve the manipulation of tactile materials. His recent work incorporates materials such as plastic bags, metal, wood, jute bags and glass, using a process of twisting and melting to create amorphous shapes that play with sculptural balance.

A graduate of Fine Art from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Onadipe has held two solo exhibitions at Pan Atlantic University, Lagos.

Adebowale was also born in 1982. He is a mixed media artist, who utilises texts, pigments and found materials to explore issues of gender, sexuality and identity. Her work comments on topics spanning Nigeria’s dysfunctional political landscape and the impact of social media in contemporary society.

A graduate of painting from Auchi Polytechnic, Adebowale has completed residencies at the Instituto de Arte E Cultura Yuroba in Brazil and Asiko Art School in Ghana.

Born in 1968, Atiku is a performance and multi-media artist, who examines political concerns for human rights and justice. Through drawing, installation, sculpture, photography, video and performance art, he comments on the psychological and emotional effects of traumatic events including violence, war, poverty, corruption and climate change. A graduate of University of Lagos and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Atiku was the recipient of the prestigious Prince Claus Award in 2015.

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