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Notes
1. The auction established Chike Nwagbogu's reputation as an art dealer, enabling him to confidently move, the next year (2000), from the Nimbus Art gallery on Ribadu Road to a larger space called Nimbus Art Centre located at Maitama Sule Street, Ikoyi, Lagos. Chike considers the Nimbus Art Centre as “revolutionary” in the Nigerian art market because “it combined an art gallery with a guest house, restaurant, art shop, etc.” and set the model for other galleries that were to follow with similar vision.
2. Kavita Chellaram is the CEO of Arthouse Contemporary Ltd, the premier art auction house in Nigeria.
3. In the Arthouse auction catalogues, many important data are left out. For example, there is hardly any information on provenance. We are not told whether the dimensions of sculptures are length, width or depth. Sometimes, there are also wrong pieces of information on medium. El Anatsui's mural sculptures have been recorded as “oil on wood panels,” “oil and gouache on wood panel,” etc. Anatsui's ceramic piece produced in manganese body has been documented as “manganese body and clay.”
4. The dominant and most important contributor has been Chika Okeke-Agulu, US-based Nigerian artist and art historian. Others include Kunle Filani, Frank Ugiomoh, Joachim Melchers, Oliver Enwonwu, dele jegede, Evelyn Nicodemus and Olasehinde Odimayo.
5. I asked a “specialist” in one of the Nigerian auction houses what her area of specialty is. She replied that she specializes in “art auctions and gallery management”!
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ozioma Onuzulike
Ozioma Onuzulike, MFA, PhD ([email protected]) is a ceramic artist, poet, art critic, art historian, and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. He keeps a blog at oziomachukwu.blogspot.com.
Originally titled “Art Auctions in Nigeria: Ladders of Progress or Shots in the Artists' Feet?” this paper was first delivered at the 4th Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF) Lecture held on January 29, 2014 in Lagos, Nigeria. I am indebted to OYASAF for organizing the lecture and sponsoring my trip. I am also indebted to Prof. Jerry Buhari and Prince (Engr.) Yemisi Shyllon who made me write this paper in the first place, and to the editors of CI for its final form.