LAGOS.- ART X Lagos, West Africa’s leading international art fair, today announces the dates for the second edition of its annual art fair. ART X Lagos will take place across three days from 3rd – 5th November 2017 at The Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Building on the success of its maiden edition in 2016, and continuing with its objective to showcase the best and most innovative contemporary art from the African continent and the diaspora, ART X Lagos in 2017 will host prestigious galleries including Art House - The Space (Nigeria), SMO Contemporary (Nigeria), Stevenson Gallery (South Africa), Gallery 1957 (Ghana) and Tafeta (United Kingdom), amongst others. The full list of exhibiting galleries and artists will be released in September 2017.

With its intention of widening West Africa’s connection to the international contemporary art scene, ART X Lagos is currently the only art fair in sub-Saharan Africa to take place outside South Africa. The inaugural edition of ART X Lagos in 2016 exhibited the works of over 65 artists drawn from 10 countries around Africa, with representation from 12 galleries and 3 independent artists and 2017 is set to be even bigger.

ART X Lagos is unique in that alongside inviting established galleries to exhibit at the fair, each year three independent African artists are selected to exhibit at the fair, an approach which reflects the contemporary art scene in West Africa, where many critically acclaimed artists choose to represent themselves. In addition ART X Lagos will select 6 emerging African artists whose works across the mediums of performance art, installation, photography and video art will create a central show piece for the fair.

The 2017 art fair will once again feature a curated projects program and a talks program, curated by Missla Libsekal, an independent cultural producer and the Founder of Another Africa. The art fair will also see the return of ART X Live! a live art and music performance featuring Africa’s most talented rising musicians, as well a series of interactive projects curated by A Whitespace Creative Agency. In addition, ART X Lagos runs a contemporary art prize to discover the best young artists from Nigeria.

The presenting galleries for 2017 have been chosen by a Selection Committee led by Advisory Board members, N'Goné Fall, the renowned Senegalese curator, art critic and cultural consultant, and Femi Lijadu, one of Nigeria's most respected art collectors and leading commercial lawyers.

Tokini Peterside, ART X Lagos Founder & Director: “Our debut art fair in 2016 was an exciting and exhilarating experience that validated our decision to create this vital platform for the growth and increased visibility of African artists and galleries. We are incredibly proud of our achievement, which culminated in visits by over 5,000 visitors to the Civic Centre over 3 days, to see the works of Africa’s most inspiring artists. This would have been impossible without the phenomenal support of the galleries, sponsors and partners, who took a huge leap of faith and committed to support us from ground zero, for which we are most grateful. In just 4 months’ time, we will be opening the doors to the ART X Lagos art fair, and we look forward once again to welcoming a vast and varied local and international audience as we seek to reinforce Lagos’ position as an emergent cultural capital on our continent.”