By Chukwuma Ajakah

After a brief sojourn in Europe where he had gone for the proverbial greener pastures in 2016, arts promoter and collector, Raphael Akinnire returned to Nigeria with a heart set on doing something special in his fatherland, but tried unsuccessfully in diverse vocations, including furniture-making until he again left for the United States of America where he met an art connoisseur, Jimmy Guroje who guided him to explore the business side of arts.   

Inspired by his discoveries from touring museums in the USA, Raphael established Gemini Arts Gallery as he returned to Nigeria determined to replicate what he had learnt overseas by improving the quality of local artistry to global standard.

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Briefing journalists during a media chat held at 27/29, King George V Road, Onikan, Lagos on Thursday, May 26, 2022, the Art Director, Raphael Akinnire, revealed that the exquisite gallery has exhibited paintings, sculptures and frames in less than a year of its existence and will serve as an epicenter for arts education. While noting that many artists across the various genres need knowledge to make the most of their talents, Akinnire observed that: “There are many people who can draw and do wonderful artistic works, but do not have the required education.”  He added: “Many young talented artists leave the things they are doing to join agberos because they don’t know better.”

Asked what category of artists he works with, he said: “I’m working with everybody irrespective of their status and medium of expression. I even work with secondary school students at present to encourage them. My connection is education. That is what we lack in this country.” On his relationship with artists as a collector, he remarked: “You can separate the artist and the art. I may like an artist as a person, but not fancy his works or like the works and not the person. What I do is to see how to marry the relationship between the artist and the work.”  

Akinnire revealed that Gemini Arts Gallery was exhibiting in conjunction with galleries locally and internationally before the company was set up in its present location and had enjoyed robust relationships with famous organisations like Signature Arts Gallery and Nike Arts Gallery. He added that within its seven months of operation in Onikan, Lagos, Gemini Arts Gallery has organised three exhibitions. The grand opening exhibition tagged: After Nature, featured the works of Uche Uzorka, Olumide Onadipe and Samson Akinnire. The outfit has also exhibited Nyemike Onwuka, Heymann Ogbemi, Augustus Nweke, Agoge Thomas Oghale, John Ogbeta, Donald Onuoha, and Nnabuogor Azuka. Moreover, the facility houses over 50 works, including the amazing works of his siblings-Rotimi Akinnire and Samson Akinnire, who are established contemporary artists in their own rights. 

According to its documented mission statement, “Gemini Arts Gallery was created so that everybody who comes through its doors can be touched by the far reaching effects of arts.” The excerpt collaborating Akinnire’s stance on education further reads: “Part of our core value is mass education and enlightenment through art because we see art as a window created by artists into a space or state beyond one’s current location powered by the imagination and skillful rendition of the artist…”

Akinnire stated that the hullabaloo occasioned by the global pandemic was virtually inconsequential with regards to his motivation in establishing Gemini Arts Gallery. According to the Art director: “I didn’t think of the pandemic. It was just the lockdown which was rather good for the arts because it reshaped our thinking and made many artists to start documentation. We seem not to take documenting serious. We need to document the period.” 

Commenting on what he would do differently with a new gallery amidst so many existing ones, he stressed, “I was doing exhibitions before the gallery started, exhibiting within Nigeria and internationally at places like New York, Brooklyn and California. I visited virtually all the museums in America. My perspective changed when I saw how art is handled there. I returned to reposition our arts. I admit that there’s no angle others have not touched, but I intend to put Nigerian art on a global pedestal.”  

Moreover, he revealed that the emergence of galleries have helped to change the lifestyle of artists. For instance, engaging the digital platform has really turned what they do into a global business and through the internet technology break boundaries. We all have boundaries with ourselves and can break such boundaries of ethnicity, religion, and culture.”