Tunji Adeniyi-Jones joins G.A.S. Foundation in Lagos for a homecoming residency this month. Adeniyi-Jones is an accomplished painter born in London to Nigerian parents. He received a BFA from The Ruskin School of Art at Oxford University in 2014 and an MFA in painting and printmaking from Yale in 2017. His work explores his Yoruba ancestry, its folklore, and idolatry from the perspective of the African diaspora. 

G.A.S. Fellow, Tobi Onabolu begins a month-long spring residency at the G.A.S. Farmhouse in his ancestral hometown, Ijebu Ode. Onabolu's artistic practice focuses on well-being and explores the concept of vibrations and frequencies through the lens of mental health, intersecting with spirituality. During his residency, he hopes to contextualize his well-being practice within his paternal ancestral home and explore notions of vibrations within Yoruba culture. 

This week, G.A.S. Foundation welcomes Nate Agbetu, a UK-based curator, strategist and educator, who arrived at G.A.S. Lagos on 24th March. His residency serves to establish preliminary connections across the culture sector in Lagos whilst working on the launch of his new studio. During his time in the city, he plans to explore creative spaces and connect with local cultural practitioners to learn more about his home and producers working across the diaspora. Nate hopes to expand his network and understanding of Nigeria's arts and culture ecosystem while developing his next project, Public Powers.

In March Guest Artists Space Foundation welcomed artists Evan Ifekoya and Raymond Pinto to G.A.S. Lagos. The opportunities were initiated following a collaboration with Lagos Biennial who approached G.A.S. about hosting artists participating in the 2024 edition as a means of facilitating research, networking and project development opportunities ahead of their presentation at the bi-annual event currently scheduled for February 2024.

Water is Life, O!  marked the end of Evan Ifekoya's month-long Lagos residency at G.A.S. Foundation.⁠ Ifekoya's sonic offering featured a compositional cocktail of sounds from Ifekoya's residency; voiceovers from mundane and intentional encounters from across the city were masterfully layered with marine acoustics from Lagos' lagoons, various beaches across the city, Osun Oshogbo sacred grove, and the point of no return; Badagry's infamous former slave trade port. Voices wove in and out of the baseline sound, varying between melodic and cacophonous, punctuated only by clear, piercing, yet haunting tones from the artist's crystallophones.

Carry My Not Knowing marks the end of a two-week-long residency for US based movement artist, Raymond Pinto.  In his rounding-off projects, the Lagos Biennial artist hosts a workshop, a live performance, and produces two short films. Pinto's approach to movement and sculpture challenges us to view the world through a new lens, where art is not just a product, but a collaborative and transformative process.

Guest Projects Digital alumni Chiizii has collaborated with Queercircle, London to produce a new multimedia work that occupies the Queercircle library and reading room. The piece titled Ogoni 9 uncovers the often-forgotten history of a group of activists known collectively as the Ogoni Nine who were killed by the Nigerian government after protesting the exploitation and degradation of their land by British oil companies. 

We are pleased to reintroduce you to Emma Prempeh, Seyi Adelakun, Mariam Aslam, Miriam Bettin, Antoinette Yetunde Oni, and Portia Zvavahera. From Lagos to London, they have each made significant contributions to contemporary art, culture, heritage and environment. Their respective practices explore themes of identity, culture, and community.

Five months following his residency, G.A.S. Fellow, Ofem Ubi shares a new body of work. In Back on Home Soil, the prolific photographer, writer, and filmmaker presents a powerful and deeply personal exploration of grief, which he approaches with remarkable vulnerability.

Performing artist and sculptor, Raymond Pinto, joins us this week for a residency at G.A.S. Lagos. With a focus on the African diaspora and queer and black archives, Raymond's work examines the nature of the dancing body and its impact on our aesthetic dimension. During his residency, Raymond will conduct research in preparation for his exhibition at the Lagos Biennial later in the year.

G.A.S. Foundation welcomes Evan Ifekoya as its latest artist-in-residence in February 2023. The Nigerian Born interdisciplinary artist's practice examines the politicisation of culture, society and aesthetics in their practice, sourcing material from historical archives and contemporary society to construct stories and experiences with text, sound and video. 

Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist, Umar Rashid is a painter and installation artist whose work illustrates alternative historical narratives, most notably, his fictional Frenglish Empire (1648 - 1880). His reappropriations of world histories explore the intricacies of race, gender, class, and power. His chosen iconography is simultaneously evocative of contemporary and historical imagery.