Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Lagos Debuts Street Art Festival With Murals on City Walls, Fela Kuti Exhibit

Organizers say street murals put creativity in daily reach to nurture civic pride.

Overview

  • Legendary Lagos: City of Dreams concluded as the city’s first street art festival, with 12 artists transforming pollution-blackened walls into large public murals.
  • Nine participants have Nigerian roots and three are international, reflecting a push to democratize art beyond galleries, according to co-organizer Osa Seven.
  • Artists and organizers frame public art as social expression that builds awareness and local pride, a view echoed by Lagos muralist Ernest Ibe.
  • Parallel programming features an expansive Fela Kuti exhibition making its African debut, with 440 items and an expanded format that a curator says is three times larger than the original French version.
  • The festival follows Lagos’s Art X fair and aligns with a growing regional arts circuit that includes Senegal’s Dakar Biennale.