Yinka Shonibare, RA and 2004 Turner Prize nominee, has announced plans to launch an artist residency programme across two sites in Nigeria: one in Lagos and the other in the rural area of Ijebu in Ogun state, The Art Newspaper reports. Titled the Guest Artists Space (GAS) Foundation, the residency has been developed from Shonibare’s Guest Projects initiative, which offered opportunities for artists to work in his London studio for a month. Of his new initiative, Shonibare has said: ‘I want to build an infrastructure for international artists to go to Nigeria and learn from local artists, and for artists on the ground to learn from international artists. Unfortunately, there aren’t many opportunities for artists to develop spaces in Africa. Artists want to share ideas and have galleries and studios. But if that’s not provided, it’s left to the artists to fill that gap and take that [responsibility] upon themselves.’
The Lagos residency building will be designed by Elsie Owusu Architects, and will house a gallery, accommodation and studio spaces for the artists, while the Ijebu space will be located on a farm ‘complete with greenhouses, 1,000 cashew nut trees and other crops’. The GAS Foundation is primarily paid for by the Yinka Shonibare Foundation, and its board of trustees and advisers include El Anatsui, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Antony Gormley and Olafur Eliasson. Shonibare has expressed hopes that the residency will be in place by 2021.
3 January 2020
