In Lagos, Victoria Ndubuisi and Paulcy Odama turn bodies into landscape and monumental architecture into something fragile. In Abuja, Dotun Popoola bends discarded metal until it holds movement and likeness. In Paris, four decades of Kerry James Marshall place Black figures at the centre of history painting. Three shows about what a surface can be made to carry.

A Tanzanian painter turns white space into a field of memory; a Paris gallery fills with flea-market talismans. In Lagos, one group show tests affinities across generations while another asks how traces survive in material form. Four exhibitions worth seeing this week.

From Ruth Ige and Chika Idu in Lagos to Barthélémy Toguo and Ladji Diaby in Paris, the exhibitions worth making time for now.

At Nubuke Foundation domestic objects turn into archives of labour and belonging, Gabriel Selassie Tsagli sets the choreography of the rave against private grief and Frank Coffie makes yarn do two entirely different jobs in one room.

Stephen Tayo finds social choreography in the movements around worship, Ameh Egwuh builds a language from yellow bodies and white birds, and Ngozi-Omeje Ezema discovers what a vessel can hold after it breaks.

For nearly a decade, Yinka Ilori has been known as an artist of colour and community — the designer behind playful, technicolour public interventions across London and beyond.

From London to Lagos, New York to the French Riviera, African and diasporic artists are commanding some of the most talked-about gallery walls this summer. Here's where to go, who to see, and what to expect before the doors close.

Two Galleries, Four Decades, One Artist Running Out of Time to See in Lagos

London Gallery Weekend returns for its sixth edition this 5–7 June, bringing together over 120 galleries across the capital for three days of exhibitions, talks, and events — all free and open to the public. For its Co-Directors Jeremy Epstein and Sarah Rustin, the 2026 edition is "a convening moment that is both local and global in its scope and audience, reflecting the year-on-year revitalisation and evolution of the capital's contemporary art scene."

On October 12, 2025, the Ecobank Pan African Centre in Lagos opens its doors to Fela Kuti: Afrobeat Rebellion, marking the return of an exhibition that celebrates one of Africa’s most influential cultural figures. Originally curated by the Philharmonie de Paris in 2022, the exhibition is now reimagined for its Nigerian debut by the A Whitespace Creative Arts (AWCA) Foundation, with support from the French Embassy in Nigeria and the Kuti family.

The Nigerian art landscape welcomed a major new institution with the launch of ADEGBOLA Gallery in Victoria Island, Lagos. Founded by lawyer and cultural entrepreneur Kayode Adegbola, the gallery officially opened its doors on October 1, 2025, Nigeria's Independence Day. The space has been established with the ambition of creating a new home for serious curatorial work that is deeply anchored in local context while maintaining global relevance.

A groundbreaking exhibition explores photography’s role in shaping Pan-African identity, solidarity, and political thought The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has announced a landmark exhibition titled Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination, opening December 14, 2025, and running through July 25, 2026.

Southern Guild is set to make its third consecutive appearance at The Armory Show, presenting a powerful new body of work at Booth 117 of the Javits Center. The presentation, on view during the VIP Preview on September 4 and to the public from September 5–7, will feature new paintings, sculpture, and photography from a roster of seminal artists from South Africa, Morocco, Benin, and Nigeria.

Victoria Ndubuisi’s distinctive approach to painting captures attention in a remarkable way. In her ongoing solo exhibition titled "Ọmụgwo," she employs a unique marbling technique for the backgrounds of her artworks, created through the dynamic act of performance.

O’DA Art is pleased to present, Walk like a Champion, Abe Odedina’s first solo exhibition in Lagos, Nigeria. This new body of work is a testament to this special gathering and the thrilling opportunity to finally exhibit in Nigeria again and most importantly, to make a show for his Mother ahead of the centenary of her birth. Its title, that Odedina attests, ‘is not about swagger. It’s not about strutting around. It’s about what you think a champion is? It’s about being undeniably true to yourself. When we say “walk”, it’s in a more important sense than one foot in front of the other. It’s how you go through life. It’s the Big Walk.’