ART X Lagos will honour potter Ladi Kwali with an exhibition and a masterclass offering three ₦1.5 million grants to selected artists. The programme forms part of the fair’s eleventh edition at the Federal Palace in Lagos from 5 to 8 November.
Ladi Kwali: Beyond the Vessel will bring together ceramics and archival material from the National Museum, Onikan, and private lenders. Curator Dr Jareh Das has developed the exhibition around Kwali’s work and the wider pottery traditions of women in her community.
The display will include works by Kande Ushafa and Asibi Ido, who worked alongside and after Kwali, as well as pottery by Gbari, Nupe and Bida makers. The exhibition connects hand-built water vessels with later production of teapots, tankards, bowls and casserole dishes.
Das’s curatorial statement places the objects within the networks through which women learnt, made and circulated pottery. It also considers access to training, materials, institutional support and recognition, rather than presenting Kwali’s career in isolation from other women practitioners.
Kwali learnt pottery from her aunt, developing hand-building and coiling skills rooted in Gbari women’s traditions. She later joined the Pottery Training Centre at what was then Abuja, now Suleja. Her work combined inherited forms and incised decoration with techniques including glazing and high-temperature firing.
The accompanying ART X ICON Masterclass will select ten emerging artists. Its first day, on Saturday, 7 November, includes a 30-minute documentary directed by Das and a public ART X Talk on Kwali. A curator-led exhibition walkthrough and a private session with artist Ngozi Omeje-Ezema follow on Sunday, 8 November.
Participants will reconvene online on 16 November to present their work to a jury. Three winners will each receive ₦1.5 million, according to the organisers. The ten selected participants will also receive an honorarium; the published page does not state its amount.
Applications close at 11.59pm West Africa Time on Monday, 26 October. Applicants must have five years of active practice, live and work in Nigeria, and attend the Lagos and online sessions.
The organisers describe the private session as an exercise in critical thinking and developing artistic practice. Participants do not need to work in clay, and it will not include practical pottery instruction. Zenith Bank sponsors the exhibition and masterclass.
ART X Lagos has announced A New Chapter, A New Decade as its 2026 theme. Its statement draws on Nigerian Modernism and the ways artists reinterpret cultural inheritance. The fair’s wider programme encompasses visual art, cinema, music and conversations.
Founded by Tokini Peterside-Schwebig in 2016, ART X Lagos works with galleries representing artists from Africa and its diaspora. Its established platforms include ART X Cinema, ART X Live! and ART X Talks, alongside initiatives supporting emerging artists and curators.
York Art Gallery holds a separate hand-built pot by Kwali in its W. A. Ismay Studio Ceramics Collection. The museum describes its incised and inlaid pattern, red slip and transparent glaze. The vessel measures 360 millimetres in diameter.
Fair tickets are linked through Tix Africa on the organiser’s website. The published contact addresses for ticket enquiries are support@tix.africa and hello@artxlagos.com.
Image: Courtesy of The Estate of Ladi Kwali/York Museums Trust via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. York Art Gallery, YORYM2004.1.919. Photograph: York Museums Trust Staff, 2013. Archive object illustration, not a confirmed ART X Lagos loan. Resized.
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