Join us on September 30, 2025, for Worlding from Below: Mapping African Literary Spaces, a virtual presentation by Angela Wachuka, Co-Founder of Book Bunk. This event is part of the AAL Lab convening series Contemporary Art and Archive Practices (CAAP), jointly organised by Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation and Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F.) within the framework of the Re:assemblages programme. Across 2025–26, CAAP will unfold as a constellation of hybrid public convenings exploring the porous borders between contemporary art and archival practice. The series welcomes the inaugural African Arts Libraries (AAL) Lab and Affiliates Network, incubated under Re:assemblages, alongside the wider public.

Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F.) and Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation are delighted to announce that The Osahon Okunbo Foundation (TOOF) joins our Global Circle of supporters. This significant two year donation will support residencies in Lagos and assist in the realization of the 2025 Re:assemblages Symposium.  

Across July, August, G.A.S. Foundation hosted three residents whose practices spanned research, performance, installation, and sound, yet converged on shared themes of heritage, ecology, and community. Pelumi Odubanjo traced Afro-Brazilian histories across Lagos, Badagry, and Ibadan, Dr. Ietef Vita rooted his eco-hip-hop practice in Nigerian landscapes, merging music with agroecology, food justice, and ancestral knowledge while engaging local creative and activist communities. Olufela Omokeko deepened his Mobile Food Museum project through sculptural and installation-based works that celebrated Yoruba agricultural identity and reimagined the symbolic weight of everyday tools. Together, their residencies reflect the breadth of experimentation and dialogue nurtured at G.A.S., where artistic practice becomes a means to preserve cultural histories, spark ecological awareness, and foster community resilience.

Earlier this week, we had the pleasure of welcoming Rado Ištok, a Slovak-born curator and art historian based in Prague, for a one-week research residency at G.A.S. Lagos. Currently the Curator of the Collection of Art Since 1945 at the National Gallery Prague and a PhD candidate at Charles University, Rado’s work bridges art history and curatorial practice with a focus on solidarities and exchanges between the Socialist Bloc and the Global South during the Cold War.

We are pleased to welcome Ng’onga Silupya, a Lusaka-based curator, cultural practitioner, arts administrator, and art writer, to G.A.S. Lagos for an immersive one-week research residency.  Working across performance, dance, literature, digital culture, ecology, and curatorial research, Ng’onga investigates how contemporary art and cultural heritage can help shape more habitable and equitable societies. Her practice draws on mediation, cultural and visual studies, and art history, engaging narratives and indigenous sustainable practices connected to diverse ethnic groups in Zambia and beyond.

We are pleased to welcome Daniel Minter, an American painter, illustrator, and educator, to G.A.S. Foundation for his residency. His multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture, drawing, printmaking, installation, and crafts, often addressing themes of displacement and diaspora informed by his extensive travels across Africa and the wider African Diaspora. Beyond his artistic practice, Daniel is the co-founder and artist director of Indigo Arts Alliance,a Maine-based arts incubator that brings together artists from diverse backgrounds of the African Diaspora to engage in their creative processes. Through multidisciplinary residency and fellowship programs rooted in a Black-led approach to creativity, community-building, and mentorship, the organization's mission addresses the underrepresentation of Black and Brown artists across disciplines in the local, national and global context. 

On September 3rd, 2025, G.A.S. Lagos hosted Picturing Return: Afro-Brazilian Archives in Nigeria, an evening that traced the histories, images, and narratives of the Aguda community and their enduring presence in Nigeria. Bringing together Pelumi Odubanjo whose practice examines the historical and contemporary links between Brazil and the West African diaspora, and scholar, curator, and researcher Oludamola Adebowale, the event explored the living archive of Afro-Brazilian presence in Nigeria

The AAL Lab Convenings, titled Contemporary Art and Archive Practices in Context, are a series of public events that bring together the African Arts Libraries Lab (AAL Lab), its Affiliates Network, and wider audiences to engage in research-sharing and dialogue on contemporary art and archival practice. Informed by the conceptual threads of Re:assemblages 2025–26—Ecotones, The Short Century, Annotations, and The Living Archive—each convening features reflections from invited speakers and the AAL Lab’s inaugural cohort alongside contributions from the broader public.

We are excited to welcome Pelumi Odubanjo, a British-Nigerian curator, writer, and researcher, to G.A.S. Lagos as our last resident in August. Based between London and Glasgow, Pelumi’s practice spans photography, multidisciplinary research, curatorial work, and ecology. Currently a PhD candidate in History of Art at the University of Glasgow and a James McCune Smith Scholar, her work engages with photographic archives, artists, and cultural artefacts to explore dialogues across global Black diasporas and geographies.

In 2024, Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation and Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F.) were awarded a $220,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art. The two-year funding supports CULTIVATION: Art, Environment & Materiality at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikiṣẹ, offering residencies for American-based artists exploring ecology, agriculture, and sustainable material practices. The first artist in residence was Dr. Ietef Vita, who joined G.A.S. in August 2025.