The African art acquisition and advisory platform Aworanka has partnered with GAIA Africa, the members’ club for leading and experienced women, to bring a second art exhibition to Lagos, Nigeria.
Titled ‘EVE’, this exhibition features 77 works of art by 15 women artists from 5 different countries.
The exhibition will be on display at the GAIA House in Victoria Island, Lagos, from February to May 2022, with a grand opening on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, at 6 p.m. (WAT).
Carefully curated by Ana Acha, founder/CEO of Aworanka, for GAIA Africa, Eve is an art installation borne out of the organizers’ desire to bridge the huge discrepancy in representation for female artists and their works, compared to male artists, in art exhibitions and collections.
“Women-only exhibitions will be needed as long as the market continues showing underrepresentation of female artists in art events, art history books, auctions, and directorship positions at museums and galleries,” Ana Acha said, buttressing the rationale that birthed ‘EVE’.
Acha’s point is supported by the latest data that shows that only 11% of the works acquired by 26 top museums in the United States are by female artists, and of this 11%, only 3% are works by African-American artists. This is in spite of the fact that female students comprise 65% of the art school population.
The women whose artworks are on display for ‘EVE’ hail from countries that span three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa. Representing Spain, Portugal, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, and Nigeria, the artist’s works cover themes of womanhood, beauty, love, cultural heritage, shared experience of Black women, motherhood, career, leisure, fashion, pop art, and the female image.
The artists whose works feature in this exhibition are Portuguese fabric painter Raquel Gralheiro; Cameroonian ceramicist Djakou Kassi Nathalie; Nigerian figurative painter Almat Adams; Azerbaijani painter Khurshidbanu Akberova; Nigerian conceptual visual artist Kehinde Balogun; Spanish illustrator Ana Jaren; Nigerian abstract painter Ayoola Omovo; Nigerian illustrator Mariam Omoyele; Nigerian digital artist Davida Enara; and Nigerian painters Korede Aremo, Abigail Nnaji, Amarachi Odimba, Wande Oseni, Naomi Oyeniyi, and Tiffany-Annabelle.
‘EVE’ is the sophomore exhibition born from the partnership between Aworanka and GAIA Africa, following the success of their debut exhibition, ’Framing Her,’ which ran from October 2021 to January 2022.
