2026 has already been a rich year of learning and fruitful experiences. During the summer months we take stock and look ahead to the fall art season. A few lessons we re-learned along the way, is the importance of collaborating with partners.
Working in community is often complicated and time consuming, but in the end, we achieve a far greater impact. As the saying goes “One Hand Cannot Clap Alone”, so it is in the art market, where resource challenges have forced us to be innovative and come up with new business models. We started an exciting new collaboration with the Asian Fusion restaurant, ARAMI in Lekki, Lagos. This beautiful new hospitality space invited us to curate their large walls and double-volume gallery space which lends itself perfectly to art.
Curating the inaugural exhibition at ARAMI called Celebration, was an exciting experience which brought together a diverse group of emerging and leading talent including installations and sculptures in bronze, clay and fiberglass. We placed contemporary and modernist paintings next to undulating textile tapestries and wooden slats engraved with copper wires alongside lenticular works of ancient nsibidi script. Bold ceramic pots and an engraved wooden bench sat vis-à-vis a 4 meter mixed media work, which drew inspiration from African archeological sites.
People who walked Arami were satiated by gourmet delicacies, while being surrounded by a perfect combination of art and design to inspire the senses. The art-design-gastronomy combo comes with stunning rooftop views over the sprawling Lagos metropolis. SMO x ARAMI reminds us that if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, then go together. Do drop by during the rainy summer months and enjoy
Celebration while exploring great food, design and conversations.
As we look forward to what the next few months have to offer, we are focusing on the need to tell more diverse and historically grounded stories through the work of important talent who have contributed significantly to the African art canon. We will be co-curating an important retrospective exhibition of works by one of Africa’s leading artist-critic-historian, Prof. Chika Okeke Agulu, and showcasing exciting new works from rising talent Nigeria, Benin, Ethiopia and South Africa.