By Chukwuma Ajakah

From February 27 to March 4, 2022, at Landmark Event Centre, Lekki, Lagos, Africa NXT will present NXT.ART Fair, a debut edition visioned to be the largest gathering of innovators from across Africa and the Diaspora. The fair focuses on contemporary aspirations and future realities, while capturing an encompassing content across creative fields.

As the line between art and technology is being blurred in the 21st Century, NXT.ART creates a strong convergence for enthusiasts, inventors and investors of modern and contemporary contents. NXT.ART provides the world with a look at the present art landscape in Africa, explores tech’s impact on the next iteration of African art, while also creating a platform for emerging talent. NXT.ART will be a physical art fair and conversations series, coupled with an immersive digital experience and online NFT commerce space.

According to the fair director, Ugonna Ibe-Ejiogu:”The NXT.ART space will showcase contemporary art from galleries in Africa and the African Diaspora, designed to focus on the distinctive and connective themes in Black culture. NXT.ART has partnered with African Digital Art to host a Digital Gallery co-curated by Ibe-Ejiogu and SomiNwandu.”
Ibe-Ejiogu, who is also the founder of Yenwa Gallery, says the NXT.ART FAIR, in addition, includes a curated section with theme ‘Here & There.’ The theme is about contemplating present dreams and future realities.

“Here & There is then, now and everywhen. A journey of reimagined space – physical, psychological and conceptual,” explains Ibe-Ejiogu. “It considers this moment and explores a future experience for Africa and her Diaspora.” The NXT. ART 5-day experience also has a gathering tagged ‘Curated Convos’, featuring local and international artists, curators, collectors and investors.

To showcase a fair that is befitting of the growing strength of Lagos as Africa’s art hub, NXT.ART’s Advisory and Selection committee comprises of prominent art collectors and curators in Africa and the Diaspora, who screened and selected the galleries being featured in the fair. List of the participanting galleries will be released ahead of the Fair’s opening, the organisers assure.

Having been a part of the local tech and business ecosystem for 10 years, Africa NXT seeks to leverage its learnings and insights to ensure capacity and creating of an enabling environment that fosters collaboration and innovation for decades to come.

“For the 2022 edition of AfricaNXT we are tasking ourselves, our speakers and attendees to reimagine what’s possible, to rethink our approach to innovation and to radically collaborate. We believe in the power of us gathering with purpose and understand the opportunity before us, to collectively build the Africa we want.”

Vanguard News Nigeria