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Tiwani Contemporary is committed to connecting global artists and international audiences, opening space for dialogue about experience and belonging. Over the past 13 years, the gallery has become preeminent in championing artists from Africa and its diaspora to collectors and institutions based both in and beyond the continent. At its locations in London and Lagos, Tiwani Contemporary is known for its nuanced, engaging presentations of work by emerging, mid-career and established artists.

 

The gallery was founded in London in 2011 by Maria Varnava, a Greek Cypriot who grew up in Lagos, with the guidance of her friend and mentor, the internationally renowned Nigerian curator Bisi Silva (1962-2019). Silva proposed the name Tiwani, which loosely translates as “ours” or “it belongs to us” from the Yoruba language, as a distillation of the gallery’s intentions to strive for inclusivity and attend to the particular meanings and circumstances of the work of individual artists.

 

Coinciding with the 10th anniversary of its founding, in 2022 the gallery inaugurated its space in Victoria Island, Lagos, with an exhibition of monumental paintings by the British-Nigerian artist Joy Labinjo. At its new premises on Cork Street, Mayfair, opened in 2023, it has staged acclaimed exhibitions by, among others, Labinjo, Miranda Forester and Gareth Nyandoro; upcoming exhibitions will present new work by Virginia Chihota and Umar Rashid. The gallery’s exhibition programme resonates across its two spaces while remaining attuned to the specific contexts and possibilities of each.

 

Tiwani Contemporary is committed to developing the careers of the artists it represents, working with leading collections and institutions around the world to ensure that their work is visible to large international audiences. Gallery artists have mounted solo exhibitions at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, Bloomberg SPACE, London, the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, the National Portrait Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, MoMa PS1, New York, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, and Southwark Park Galleries, London among others, and are preparing for shows at CAAC, Seville, and Stedelijk Musea Zutphen.

 

Tiwani Contemporary has placed works by its represented artists at major international museums and institutions, including the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, MACAAL, Marrakech, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, MoMA, New York, the Perez Art Collection, Miami, the Pompidou Centre, Paris, Tate Modern, London and the Yemisi Shyllon Museum, Lagos.

 

Tiwani Contemporary is proud to act as a Residency and Fellowship Supporter of Guest Artists Space, Lagos, an initiative of the Yinka Shonibare Foundation that supports fellowships for emerging artists from the African continent. The gallery is grateful for the support of the A.G. Leventis Foundation, which has allowed it to publish extensively on its associate and represented artists.

 

Opening times:

Tue - Fri: 10am to 6pm 

Sat: 11am to 6pm

 

13 Elsie Femi Pearse Street
Victoria Island

Lagos, Nigeria

+234(0)813 051 9602

 

Opening times:

Tue - Sat: 10am to 6pm and by appointment