A huge congratulations to CCA, Lagos on the reopening of their newly renovated space and now open exhibition, Archive and Memories featuring works by six distinguished Nigerian artists—Ndidi Dike, Ngozi-Omeje Ezema, Odun Orimolade, Taiye Idahor, Temitayo Ogunbiyi, and Wura-Natasha Ogunji—alongside selections from the now late founder, Bisi Silva’s curatorial archive.
The exhibition which will welcome back the art community after its closure in 2022 opens on 12 February, 2025, marking a triumphant entry into 2025 after a three-year hiatus for extensive renovations. The reopening also coincides with the sixth anniversary of the passing of Bisi Silva, who founded the center and whose legacy continues to inspire the global art community.
Curated by Favour Ritaro, Archives and Memories offers an emotional homage to Silva’s enduring influence on contemporary African art. Archives and Memories serves as both a celebration of Bisi Silva’s achievements and a reflection on the ways archives shape our understanding of the past and present.
The exhibition examines the interplay of personal and collective memory through the archives of six prominent Nigerian artists whose practice intersected with our late founder Bisi Silva. The exhibition will also invite audiences to engage with an archive of Bisi’s curatorial practice.
Text extracted and adapted from the CCA Lagos website.
Maria Varnava, Founder Director of Tiwani Contemporary established the London based gallery in 2011 under the friendship and mentorship of Bisi Silva who proposed the name Tiwani. This 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. In 2022 the gallery inaugurated its second space in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Images:
Wura Natasha Ogunji's "Two"
Photography by Sonseree Gibson
Bisi Silva, New York, 2016
Photography by Gabriela Herman/The New YorkTimes/Redux
February 12, 2025
