G.A.S. Foundation inaugurated its 2024-25 residency season this August by welcoming multidisciplinary artist, designer and educator Ana Ogunsanya . Ana, whose residency was made possible through a successful application to the Arts Council’s Developing Your Creative Practice Fund, used her base at G.A.S. Lagos to explore her Nigerian-British heritage through the lens of Indigenous textile processes. Her time in Nigeria allowed her to visit key cultural sites and institutions and connect with artisans specialising in traditional Yoruba crafts across the Southwest. These included visiting the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, the Natural History Museum in Ife, and interacting with stakeholders involved in the historic fabric crafts of Abeokuta. In Ibadan, she visited the sites of iconic Nigerian architectural works rooted in Indigenous design and material principles like New Culture Studio, Dominican Chapel, and Bower Tower.
Ana Ogunsanya's visual art practice frequently manifests through printmaking and ceramics, which she uses to explore the complex layers of identity and belonging. These strands feed into an ongoing autoethnographic project that interlaces personal and collective narratives. The latter informed her approach to In Pieces, a workshop hosted by Ana at G.A.S. Lagos where participants were guided in exploring personal histories through collage, fostering meaningful dialogue on cultural representation.
Ana Ogunsanya with collages created during her workshop and presentation In Pieces.
Ana was joined by Phokeng Setai, a curator whose practice sits at the intersection of art, architecture, design, and urban studies. Phokeng’s primary ambition for the residency was to explore scaffolding structures as potential sites for public art interventions in Lagos. With a strong academic background in African contemporary art, he aimed to reimagine these unassuming urban elements as platforms for exhibition-making and cultural discourse.
Phokeng’s residency culminated in Scaffolding Futures, a symposium that encouraged participants to reimagine scaffolding as both a practical tool and a site-specific opportunity for performance and visual art. Speakers included Phokeng’s residency research collaborators Peter D. Abayomi, a multidisciplinary artist and cultural organiser, and artist and choreographer Femi Adebajo (Mokuti). The event provided a discursive forum for considering the cultural and social impacts of scaffolding, emphasising its potential for creatively contributing to cities and communities.
From L-R: Peter D. Abayomi, Phokeng Setai, and Mokuti at Phokeng's event Scaffolding Futures.
In mid-August, multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and researcher Alexandra Martens Serrano arrived in Lagos as part of her residency within the Goethe-Institut-supported Studio Quantum programme. Serrano divided her time between the G.A.S. Farm House in Ijebu and G.A.S. Lagos, immersing herself in both rural and urban environments to inform her artistic practice during the residency. The G.A.S. Farm House offered an ideal setting for Alexandra’s practice, which intertwines quantum technologies with natural ecologies, fostering a dialogue between art and science. During her residency, she explored Indigenous technologies in Akure, Ibadan, Oshogbo, and Ijebu, further deepening her investigation into the intersections of tradition, innovation, and the environment.
At the conclusion of her residency, Alexandra Martens Serrano hosted After the Future, an event featuring an artist talk, panel discussion, and a collaborative drawing exercise inspired by the Cadavre Exquis technique. The panel discussion included members of Ala Praxis, a research-driven art collective that engaged participants in discussions exploring the evolving relationship between technology and art. The evening fostered a reflective dialogue on how emerging technologies are reshaping artistic practices and our understanding of the future.
Members of collective Ala Praxis with Alexandra Martens Serrano at her event, After the Future.
The final resident to arrive in August was Zimbabwean visual artist Misheck Masamvu, a multidisciplinary painter and sculptor. His time at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ijebu, supported by Goodman Gallery, was dedicated to exploring the cultural and political landscape while developing a new body of work for an upcoming solo exhibition. Misheck embraced open experimentation, revisiting works in progress he’d begun in Harare and weaving in new insights drawn from the Nigerian context, particularly from an inspiring field trip to the Osun-Oshogbo Sacred Grove. This cross-cultural dialogue between Zimbabwe and the Nigerian countryside sought to inform fresh perspectives for a new series of paintings.
Misheck Masamvu with works in progress at the studio on the Ecology Green Farm, Ikise.
In September G.A.S. welcomed Kenyan multidisciplinary artist Shabu Mwangi, who as the recipient of the ART X Prize, will be spending 10 weeks in Lagos developing work for the 2024 edition of ART X Lagos. Shabu’s multimedia paintings and sculptures interrogate the human condition, the roots of societal division, collective memory, and the influence of power dynamics on individual and collective identities. His experiences in Lagos have thus far provided him with fresh perspectives that broaden his investigation of power dynamics across the continent.
Shabu Mwangi on-site at G.A.S. Farm House, Ikise where he is currently developing a new body of work for ART X Lagos.