Adebayo Akinloye
Adegbola Art Projects has announced the opening of Adegbola Gallery, a new contemporary art space in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Founded by lawyer and cultural entrepreneur Kayode Adegbola, the gallery opens with its inaugural exhibition, ‘Heroes Past’, a timely reflection on leadership, identity, and memory, on view from October 1, 2025, Nigeria’s Independence Day.
Adegbola, a well-respected force in Nigeria’s art scene, represents a new generation of African leaders working across art, business, and media.
Through Adegbola Art Projects, his curatorial and advisory platform, he has spent over 15 years building infrastructure for Nigerian artists, championing both established masters and emerging talent.
With Adegbola Gallery, he establishes a new home for serious curatorial ambition, rooted in the local context yet attuned to global conversations.
Conceived as a travelling institutional exhibition, Heroes Past opened as the inaugural exhibition at Adegbola Gallery. The exhibition features rarely seen paintings, sculptures, photographs, and archival paraphernalia honouring Nigeria’s pre- and post-independence leaders, and includes works by Akinola Lasekan, Uche Okeke, Ben Enwonwu, Oyerinde Olotu, Rufus Ogundele, Lady Head, and Doreen Kern. Unfolding across media and generations, the show offers a powerful meditation on how art has shaped and challenged national narratives.
On launching the gallery and its inaugural exhibition Heroes Past, Adegbola, founder of Adegbola Gallery, said, “Now feels like the right time because Nigeria is at an inflection point. A generation of artists, collectors, and audiences are maturing simultaneously. I wanted to create a community that responds to the moment – by elevating critical dialogue, finding and showcasing exceptional work, and building lasting value around our culture.
“Heroes Past will include paintings and sculptures by Akinola Lasekan, Uche Okeke, Ben Enwonwu, Lady Head, Oyerinde Olotu, Rufus Ogundele, Doreen Kern, as well as archival images and related paraphernalia. I’m really excited about it because of the combination of beauty, historical relevance and educational value.
Exhibiting portraits and busts of Nigerian Nationalists will not only explore the stylistic expressions of Master Nigerian artists, it will also encourage audiences to learn more about how Nigeria came into being.”
According to a statement, the opening of the gallery marked the beginning of a dynamic public programme. In November, the gallery will exhibit at Art X Lagos (November 6–9), showcasing new paintings by Adewale Kolawole John, alongside a focused tribute to Akinola Lasekan.
With a curatorial approach grounded in reflection, experimentation, and long-term artist development, Adegbola Gallery is positioned to become a vital player in the Nigerian art ecosystem, investing in artists, commissioning new work, and sparking cross-disciplinary dialogue.
The gallery seeks not only to present art but to shift the terms on which it is seen, discussed, and valued.
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