Nigerian Photographer Lakin Ogunbanwo displays at Galeries Lafayette “Africa Now” Exhibition Celebrating African Art & Design in Paris

Galeries Lafayette celebrates African art and design with an exhibition and pop-up shop titled “Africa Now” this spring.

The French department store chain’s Boulevard Haussmann flagship will feature works by Lakin Ogunbanwo, a Nigerian photographer best known for his portraits, among other artists from March 29 to June 10 on 11 window displays.

When asked about the exhibition, He says,

Its important to me to show a multifaceted Africa by speaking about my Africa. Drawing from the colours and vibrancy of my city, Lagos serves as a metaphor for the continent, where many people, cultures, realities mix and interweave all to make one beautiful whole.

According to WWD, the exhibition will also feature works by Joël Andrianomearisoa, a mixed-media collage and sculpture artist who lives and works between Paris and Madagascar. The store’s first-floor gallery space will host an exhibition curated by Marie-Ann Yemsi called “Le jour qui vient” which means “The Day to Come” in English, featuring painters, sculptors, photographers and video artists, who have never shown their works in France. Among them will be pieces by Igshaan Adams, a South African tapestry artist, and Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze, a Nigerian-born artist based in Brooklyn, N.Y., whose drawings evoke key themes of the African diaspora by depicting characters she calls “aliens” — people with fluid geographic and cultural identities.

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