Shatha Afify and Tinashe Mushakavanhu are G.A.S. Fellowship Awardees; Oluremi Onabanjo Receives The Vilcek Prize; Taqwa Ali and Eniwaye Oluwaseyi Wins Royal Award for Modern Painting
Y.S.F. and G.A.S. Awarded $220,000 Grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art
Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F.) and Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation have received a $220,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art. This significant two-year funding will support two major cross-cultural initiatives at G.A.S. residency locations in Ijebu and Lagos, fostering cultural exchange, ecological engagement, and archival preservation.
Established in 1978, the Terra Foundation for American Art is known for its local and global support of organizations and individuals that offer intercultural dialogues and encourage transformative practices that expand narratives of American art through its grant program, collection, and initiatives.
At the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikise, the grant will fund Cultivation: Art, Environment & Materiality, a two-year programme introducing 10 residencies for American-based artists, particularly those with Indigenous, African, or multicultural heritage. Meanwhile, at G.A.S. Lagos, the funding will establish the African Arts Libraries Lab (AAL Lab) and Conference, an initiative dedicated to fostering intra-African and global collaboration on African and Afro-diasporic library collections. Through international workshops and collective experimentation sessions, the AAL Lab will convene archivists, librarians, artists, curators, and cultural institutions to explore innovative approaches to preservation and restitution, focusing on underrepresented African and Afro-diasporic archival publications.
Shatha Afify and Tinashe Mushakavanhu Wins the 2025 G.A.S. Fellowship Award
G.A.S. Foundation, in partnership with the Yinka Shonibare Foundation, has announced the recipients of the 2025 G.A.S. Fellowship Award. The third edition of the G.A.S. Fellowship Award was open to outstanding mid-career professionals based in Africa, including one for a mid-career visual fine artist and one for a mid-career curator. Shatha Afify, an interdisciplinary artist, storyteller, poet, and thinker based in Egypt, is the Visual Arts Fellow, while Tinashe Mushakavanhu, a curator and writer based in Zimbabwe, is the Curatorial Fellow.
During the fully-funded six-week residencies at G.A.S. Lagos, Afify will leverage Lagos as a springboard to develop a network of peers and potential cross-disciplinary collaborators across the continent, while Tinashe Mushakavanhu plans to develop a site-specific exhibition at G.A.S. Lagos, building on his existing research and practice in experimental narrative exhibition-making.
The shortlisted visual fine artists include Ange-Frédéric Koffi, Gouled Abdishakour Ahmed, Sel Kofiga, Wallen Mapondera, and Wambui Kamiru Collymoe; and the shortlisted curators were Abbey IT-A, Nkhensani Mkhari, and Renee Mboya.
Oluremi Onabanjo Awarded The 2025 Vilcek Prize in Curatorial Work
Curator and scholar Oluremi C. Onabanjo has received the Vilcek Prize in Curatorial Work for her work to examine the power, position, and production of Blackness in relation to the unfinished global history of the photographic medium.
The Vilcek Foundation has awarded prizes annually in biomedical science and in a rotating category in the arts and humanities since 2006. This year, they announced the awarding of $250,000 in prizes to immigrant curators with the 2025 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Curatorial Work. As part of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes program, the foundation has expanded its awards in the arts and humanities, awarding prizes in Visual Arts and Curatorial Work. The Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Curatorial Work are bestowed on immigrant curators living and working in the United States and have developed important exhibitions for museums, galleries, art fairs, or nonprofit organizations.
Oluremi Onabanjo is the Peter Schub Curator of Photography with the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her academic pursuits have equipped her with a robust intellectual framework, informing her curatorial practices and contributions to the fields of photography and the arts of the Black and African diaspora.
Taqwa Ali and Eniwaye Oluwaseyi Wins Royal Award for Modern Painting for 2025
Taqwa Ali and Eniwaye Oluwaseyi are two of the three winners of the Royal Prize for Modern Painting. The Royal Award for Modern Painting was presented by King Willem-Alexander in Amsterdam.
Along with the Prix de Rome, the Royal Award for Modern Painting is the oldest art prize for up-and-coming young visual artists living in the Netherlands. The award was established in 1871 as the Subsidy for Free Painting by King Willem III. Every year, the prize is awarded to three artists under the age of 35, who each receive €9,000.
Sudan-born visual artist, Taqwa Ali was praised by the jury for her quiet, abstract compositions which were made from fragile materials like sand, clay, and plant-based dyes. Using these materials to express themes of displacement and translocation—movement from one place to another, Ali hopes her material choices will evoke a sense of home, capturing emotions, memories, and longing.
Having lived in the Netherlands for less than a year, Nigerian-born visual artist Eniwaye Oluwaseyi’s works centered on Black figures in non-existent, slightly surreal spaces, and not bound by rules or regulations.
An exhibition featuring the work of the three winners and 12 nominees will be on display at the Royal Palace on the Dam in Amsterdam until 30 March.
Artist Spotlight: Dina Nur Satti
Dina Nur Satti is a Sudanese-Somali ceramic artist based in Brooklyn. Her practice is deeply rooted in re-learning her own history and reclaiming her personal and cultural identity. As she deconstructs made-up notions about traditions, cultures, and history, her source of inspiration takes different forms and means.
Her peculiar ceramic forms come from a subtle layering, a mimicry of the lotus flower’s vertical movement up through the water. She currently has a group exhibition “Dance Will Be You,” which will be open until March 26, 2025, at the Efiɛ Gallery, Dubai.
On view:
Archives and Memories: In honor of Bisi Silva, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Yaba will feature works from Ndidi Dike, Ngozi-Omeje Ezema, Odun Orimolade, Taiye Idahor, Temitayo Ogunbiyi, and Wura-Natasha Ogunji, alongside other selections from Bisi Silva’s curatorial archive. (February 12 – May 31, 2025)
ONE EITHER LOVES ONESELF OR KNOWS ONESELF: Precious Okoyomon's new works investigating diverse themes are on display at Kunsthaus Bregenz. (February 1 – May 25, 2025)
Contemporary African Photography: The exhibition assembles works by more than twenty artists — such as Hassan Hajjaj, Kudzanai Chiurai, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Atong Atem, Lebohang Kganye, and Khadija Saye, amongst others — to redefine Africa’s representation in the global narrative. (February 1– May 7, 2025)
