Sikelela Owen wins the Wollaston Award at the Royal Academy; Ala Praxis now showing in Lagos; Spotlighting Virginia Chihota's art & practice
Rita Mawuena Benissan's solo installation, One Must Be Seated, at Zeitz MOCAA reimagines the royal umbrella and stool, emblems of Akan chieftaincy, and will be on view until October 19, 2025. Toyin Ojih Odutola's Ilé Oriaku is a solo exhibition of multimedia drawings and works on paper at Jack Shainman Gallery, which will close on July 18, 2025. Michael Armitage is showing new paintings and bronze reliefs that touch on the issue of migration at David Zwirner.
From Cape Town to New York, here are three art shows to see this summer. Read the rest of the article here.
Sikelela Owen Wins The Wollaston Award at the Royal Academy
Sikelela Owen has won the 2025 Charles Wollaston Award for the most distinguished work in the Summer Exhibition.
The Wollaston Award is one of the most prestigious art prizes in the UK, given for the most outstanding work in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition is an annual exhibition that showcases a diverse array of contemporary works, including prints, paintings, films, photography, sculpture, and architectural works. Over £80,000 is offered in awards and prizes for several categories of work in the exhibition, including sculpture, architecture, drawing, works on paper, painting, photography and prints. Previous winners include Tracey Emin, Kara Walker, Yinka Shonibare, and Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga, amongst many others.
This year, the prestigious £35,000 Charles Wollaston Award has been awarded to Sikela Owen for her painting ‘Knitting’.
The judges for this year's award were Rebecca Salter, President of the Royal Academy, Olivia Laing, Hew Locke RA, and Elif Shafak.
Olivia Laing says, “Sikelela's painting is full of depth and ambiguity, and a powerful sense of calm. The more time we spent with it, the more potent its spell grew.”
Sands of Time: Ala Praxis Now Showing in Lagos
Nigerian collective Ala Praxis will be showing ‘Sands of Time’ in Lagos for the first time.
Ala Praxis is a research-driven collective dedicated to transforming ideas into practical realities. Their practice is grounded in principles of environmental sustainability, earth-centered technologies, and collaborative pedagogy. The collective is made up of artists and researchers: Philip Fagbeyiro, Noah Okwudini, Peace Olatunji, Omojadesola Olaniyan, Joshua Egesi, and Timilehin Osanyintolu.
Sands of Time has toured Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Dakar (Senegal) and has now to Lagos (Nigeria). In Sands of Time, Ala Praxis presents a body of work that showcases the grounding ethos of their manifesto: a pedagogy inspired by nature. In their hourglass inspired installation, sound and sand dialogue; inviting visitors to reflect on their relationship with time and value. Additionally, the use of photography and fabric further explores how this connection impacts both nature and culture.
The body of work was developed following the group’s three-month residency in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 2023. Responding to a curatorial prompt that encouraged critical inquiry into Tanzania’s ecological relations, Ala Praxis presents a contemplative and immersive experience that brings together installation, photography, sound, and video art.
Artist Spotlight: Virginia Chihota
Virginia Chihota (b.1983) is a Zimbabwean artist living and working in New York, USA. Her deeply introspective work is shaped by both landmark and everyday personal experiences. She reflects on themes of intimacy, kinship, bereavement, faith, and transformation. Chihota’s distinctive approach blends screen-printing with drawing and painterly gestures, creating unique works marked by striking complexity. The female form often emerges in her work, blending into near abstraction, and her iconography highlights female agency challenging borders. Her art emphasises subjectivity as an interconnected concept, where individuals, communities, and the environment are bound together.
Virginia Chihota's works have been exhibited in Museums Zutphen (2025), James Cohan Gallery, NY, USA (2025), 5th Ljubljana Biennale, and Ljubljana, Slovenia (group - 2023), amongst others. She represented Zimbabwe at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013 and was awarded the Prix Canson in the same year. In 2021, her works were commissioned by the Opéra National de Paris, France, for Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida. In 2026, Chihota will have a major solo exhibition at Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo in Seville, Spain.
On view:
Othello’s Countrymen (The Krio Enigma): Gallery 1957 presents the latest body of work by Arthur Timothy in a solo exhibition in London. The British-Sierra Leonean artist explores the complex intersections of race, identity, and belonging through the lens of the Krio people of Sierra Leone and their historical parallels with the figure of Othello in Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. (July 10 – August 30, 2025)
Cour intérieure: Cécile Fakhoury Gallery, Dakar presents a group exhibition bringing together the works of artists Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux, Rachel Marsil, and Kassou Seydou. (May 24 – July 19, 2025)
time heals, just not quick enough: Curated by Ose Ekore, Efie Gallery features works by contemporary artists across generations– Samuel Fosso, Aïda Muluneh, Kelani Abass, Abeer Sultan, and Sumayah Fallatah. (June 1 – July 30, 2025)
