Nigeria Imaginary
Palazzo Canal, Venice, 2024

Nigeria Imaginary: Nigeria Pavilion of the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia marks the country’s second participation in the global event and showcases works by a cross-generational group of eight artists who have lived in both Nigeria and its Diaspora: Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Ndidi Dike, Onyeka Igwe, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Abraham Oghobase, Precious Okoyomon, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, and Fatimah Tuggar. 

The exhibition features commissioned, site-specific works, installed throughout the historic Palazzo Canal in Venice’s Dorsoduro, which respond to the exhibition’s theme and title Nigeria Imaginary. 

As Aindrea Emelife, Curator of the Nigeria Pavilion explains, “Nigeria Imaginary will explore the many Nigerias that live in our minds, curated to capture a sense of optimism imbued in inherited and collective cultural history. Articulated through different perspectives and constructed ideas, mediums and disciplines, nostalgias for Nigeria and visions of the Nigeria that is yet to be, Nigeria Imaginary is a restless investigation of the legacies of the colonial past in today’s post-independence nation and a defiant imagining of a hopeful, youth-driven future.”

Nigeria Imaginary is curated by Aindrea Emelife, presented by MOWAA (Museum of West African Art) and commissioned by Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, on behalf of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy.