 | This article contains promotional content .(October 2024) |
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| Established | October 18, 2019 |
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| Location | Lekki, Nigeria |
| Coordinates | 6°29′18″N3°51′18″E / 6.488203°N 3.854956°E |
| Type | Art museum |
| Website | museum |
The Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art is a privately-owned museum located on the main campus of the Pan-Atlantic University in Lagos State, Nigeria.
The idea of creating a museum at the university had been in the works for quite some time. In April 2011, the university took a step towards this by launching the Virtual Museum of Modern and Contemporary Nigerian Art on its website. [1] As time went on, the university received proposals from various Nigerian collectors who expressed interest in helping to set up an art museum at PAU. Although none of these proposals materialized, the university included plans for a future museum in its initial Masterplan to develop its main campus in Ibeju Lekki.
In 2012, following an initial brief developed by the university and the design consultants, some preliminary drawings for the museum were produced. Then, in September 2014, Prince Yemisi Shyllon, a renowned art collector, presented a proposal to the university, offering works from his collection to be housed in the university museum. The university accepted his proposal, and in June 2015, both parties signed a formal agreement, establishing the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art. The agreement entailed Prince Shyllon donating 1,000 artworks from his collection to the future museum. Additionally, he pledged to provide financial support for the construction and long-term sustainability of the museum through regular payments.
In mid-2015, the university appointed Redgrey Associates, a Lagos-based firm, as consultants for the project. The definition and design of the museum then began to take shape. By December 2018, Jess Castellote, who had previously collaborated on the building's design, was appointed as the museum's first Director. Construction of the museum building was completed in June 2019, and it officially opened to the public in October of the same year.
The museum contains works of art from different West African artists such as El Anatsui, Uche Okeke and Bruce Onobrakpeya. The museum houses a collection of historical sculptures. [2] The museum possesses artwork dating from the pre-colonial period to the present. [3] The Museum has on display the Nok terracotta found in Igbo-Ukwu and North Central Nigeria, plus exhibits on Ife art and Benin art. There are also some collections of traditional African wooden sculptures by Yoruba artist Lamidi Olonade Fakeye. In addition, the museum has artworks by artists Ben Enwonwu, Peju Alatise, Victor Ehikhamenor, Akinola Lasekan and Aina Onabolu. [4] Some bronze sculpture like the Ife head can be found in the museum. [5] Photographs of different cultural festivals in Nigeria, most of these photographs were produced by Ariyo Oguntimehin are also on display at the Museum. In addition, the museum has sculptures by Isiaka Osunde, Oladapo Afolayan, Adeola Balogun and Okpu Eze. [6] The museum also has a collection of wood carvings. [7] The museum holds a collection of Afikpo masks, which are traditional masks made of wood used by the Afikpo people, an ethnic group of Ebonyi State. [8]
At the museum there is a section dedicated to members of the Oshogbo School of Art, featuring works by Muraina Oyelami, Susanne Wenger, Rufus Ogundele, and Nike Davies-Okundaye. [9] The museum also contains Ifa Divination Trays. [10] The museum has among its collections treasures dating from the 16th century from the kingdom of Benin, and a royal figurine dating from the 14th century belonging to the kingdom of Ife. [11]
In 2019, the museum launched an exhibition curated by Iheanyi Onwuegbuchi titled "Mirroring Man" which was an exhibition on Nigerian art, society, and politics. [12] The second exhibit curated by Ihaenyi Onwuegbuchi in 2020 "Making Matter", was an exhibition on materiality and technology. [13]
In August 2021, the museum presented an exhibition called "The Invincible Hands", curated by Fisayo Bakare, celebrating the artistic contributions of Nigerian women artists. [14]
In November 2022, Fisayo Bakare curated another "Water Under the Bridge", a display that explored the themes of migration and memory, inviting visitors to reflect on the journeys of migrants. [15]
In May 2023, The museum launched a virtual Exhibition titled 'Foundation of Contemporary Art. [16] It was featured on Google Arts & Culture as part of an online initiative to facilitate the educational mission of the teaching museum. The works in the exhibition express the artist's quest to affirm the skill and mastery that Nigeria and African artists as a whole possessed. Doing this, they were practicing nation-building, speaking to the areas of education, media, and political agenda while promoting Pan-Africanist initiatives, mostly using realism as a visual language. “Forms and Symbols,” a quest for Visual Identity in Nigerian Modernist Art, curated by Charles Udeh, was also launched in 2023. The exhibition delves into the exploration of visual identity through the works of modernist artists like Ben Enwonwu, Bruce Onobrakpeya, and Simon Okeke, among others, showcasing over 80 pieces from the YSMA collection." [17]
In July 2024 we launched another exhibition Arewa? a nuanced and ambitious tour of Northern Nigeria, curated by Aisha Aliyu-Bima. [18] Arewa delves into the rich history, heritage, and diverse cultures of Northern Nigeria while challenging common misconceptions.
Up next in our space is the upcoming exhibition “Collecting Now”- Perspectives on Contemporary Art Collecting in Nigeria, which will launch on October 26, 2024. This exhibition will explore the world of art collecting in the country, featuring works from six prominent Nigerian collectors. [19]
Odinigwe Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu MBE, better known as Ben Enwonwu, was a Nigerian painter and sculptor. Arguably the most influential African artist of the 20th century, his pioneering career opened the way for the postcolonial proliferation and increased visibility of modern African art. He was one of the first African artists to win critical acclaim, having exhibited in august exhibition spaces in Europe and the United States and listed in international directories of contemporary art. Since 1950, Enwonwu was celebrated as "Africa's Greatest Artist" by the international media and his fame was used to enlist support for Black Nationalists movement all over the world. The Enwonwu crater on the planet Mercury is named in his honour.
Yusuf Grillo was a Nigerian contemporary painter, muralist and sculptor, known for his inventive works and the prominence of the color blue in many of his paintings. He was the founding president of the Society of Nigerian Artists. He also served as the Chairman, Visual Arts Committee of the Festival of Black Arts and Culture (FESTAC), 1977, Chairman, Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture, circa 1980, Vice President, International Association of Art. He was also Director of the Yaba College of Technology School of Art from the 1970s till 1985.
Tony Nsofor, is a Nigerian painter. His full name is Anthony Chukwudinma Richard Nsofor.
The Nigerian National Museum is a national museum of Nigeria, located in the city of Lagos. The museum has a notable collection of Nigerian art, including pieces of statuary, carvings also archaeological and ethnographic exhibits. Of note is a terracotta human head known as the Jemaa Head, part of the Nok culture. The piece is named after Jema'a, the village where it was discovered. The museum is located at Onikan, Lagos Island, Lagos State. The museum is administered by the National Commission for Museums and Monuments.
Contemporary African art is commonly understood to be art made by artists in Africa and the African diaspora in the post-independence era. However, there are about as many understandings of contemporary African art as there are curators, scholars and artists working in that field. All three terms of this "wide-reaching non-category [sic]" are problematic in themselves: What exactly is "contemporary", what makes art "African", and when are we talking about art and not any other kind of creative expression?
The National Gallery of Modern Art, Lagos (NGMA) is a major art gallery in Lagos, the largest city of Nigeria. It is a permanent exhibition of the National Gallery of Art, a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation. The gallery is located within the National Arts Theatre, at Entrance B.
Bruce Obomeyoma Onobrakpeya is a Nigerian printmaker, painter and sculptor. He has exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the Malmö Konsthall in Malmö, Sweden. The National Gallery of Modern Art, Lagos, has an exhibit of colourful abstract canvases by Onobrakpeya and his works can be found at the Virtual Museum of Modern Nigerian Art, although no exhibitions were showing as of October 2017.
The online Virtual Museum of Modern Nigerian Art is a non-commercial initiative whose primary aim is to provide an easily accessible educational resource that can serve as a first point of reference for students, teachers and art enthusiasts interested in learning about modern and contemporary art in Nigeria. It is operated by the Pan-Atlantic University in Lagos, Nigeria, the parent body of the Lagos Business School.
Pan-Atlantic University is a private, non-profit educational institution in Lekki, Lagos State.
Dele Jegede is a Nigerian-American painter, art historian, cartoonist, curator, art critic, art administrator, and teacher. Jegede was a Senior Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, (1995). He taught at Spelman College, Atlanta as Visiting Fulbright Scholar (1987-1988), when he curated the exhibition, Art By Metamorphosis. Listed in Kelly and Stanley's "Nigerian Artists: A Who's Who & Bibliography," Jegede was Professor and Chair of the Department of Art, Indiana State University, Terre Haute (2002-2005) and Professor of Art at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, (2005-2010). He retired as Professor Emeritus in May 2015. Jegede is recipient of the Distinguished Africanist Award of the University of Texas. He is currently the Chairman, board of trustees of the Cartoonists Association of Nigeria (CARTAN).
The Bronze Head from Ife, or Ife Head, is one of eighteen copper alloy sculptures that were unearthed in 1938 at Ife in Nigeria, the religious and royal centre of the Yoruba people. It is believed to represent a king. It was probably made in the 12th-13th century CE. The realism and sophisticated craftsmanship of the objects challenged the dismissive and patronising Western conceptions of African art. The naturalistic features of the Ife heads are unique and the stylistic similarities of these works "suggest that they were made by an individual artist or in a single workshop."
Victor Ehikhamenor is a Nigerian visual artist, writer, and photographer known for his expansive works that engage with multinational cultural heritage and postcolonial socioeconomics of contemporary black lives. In 2017, he was selected to represent Nigeria at the Venice Biennale, the first time Nigeria would be represented in the event. His work has been described as representing "a symbol of resistance" to colonialism.
Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon is a prince of Ake in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. He hails from the Sogbulu and Ogunfayo lineage of the Laarun ruling house of Ake in Egbaland.
Oyasaf is an art foundation that holds a large private art collection in Nigeria.
Peju Layiwola, is an art Historian and visual artist from Nigeria who works in a variety of media and genre. She is listed as a "21st Century Avant-Garde" in the book Art Cities of the Future published by Phaidon Press. She is currently a Professor of Art and Art history at the University of Lagos and has been described as a "multi-talented artist." Her works can be found in the collection of Microsoft Lagos, Yemisi Shyllon Museum, Pan Atlantic, Lagos and homes of private collectors such as JP and Ebun Clark and the Obi of Onitsha.
ART X Lagos is an art fair in Lagos, Nigeria. It is the leading international art fair in West Africa, founded and launched in 2016, and eight editions have been held so far. The ninth edition of the fair will take place between October 31 - November 3 2024.
Rowland O. Abiodun, b. 1941, is a Nigerian-American professor and author best known for his contributions to the field of African Art Studies, especially Yoruba Art. He is currently the John C. Newton Professor of Art, the History of Art, and Black Studies at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts.
Oliver Enwonwu is a Nigerian artist, curator, art administrator, writer, and publisher who comes from a long line of artists; his grandfather was a reputable traditional sculptor, and his father, Ben Enwonwu (1917–1994), was a renowned Nigerian painter and sculptor. He is the founder and CEO of Revilo; a leading Lagos-based visual arts and cultural communications company: publishers of Omenka, Africa’s first arts, business, and luxury lifestyle magazine; and past president of the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA)
Tola Wewe is a Nigerian artist.
