AGBOWO IS ONE

Agbowo started as a group of people passionate about the state of art in the University of Ibadan. We came together to collate and collect expressions of art from the students of the University. It was a monumental success. An encouragement. That year the majority of the team were in their final year of study at the University, while some were already graduates of the school. The project was titled Uites Write. Uites Write gave birth to Agbowo. Agbowo was the next step.

Agbowo is quite an interesting name for the team. One, outside of the premises of the University of Ibadan, the street opposite the school is named Agbowo, a hodgepodge of people, youths, the elderly, students, traders, people from all walks of life, which is what Agbowo now encompasses for us. Which is a combination of several individuals with differing talents and skills coming together to make magic with Art. As I said, most of the members of the team, at the time of commencement of Agbowo, were literally leaving the University and going to the outside world (Agbowo), into the next phase of our lives. So the name Agbowo has several layers of meanings for us.

The literal meaning of Agbowo is a person who collects money. Probably a person in charge of savings going round collecting money from members. For us, Agbowo is a medium of collecting Art. We are the Collectors of Contemporary African Art, be it visual or literal. Art is our currency, we go round and ask people to entrust us with their creations. We promise to provide a platform for the display of their expression. We promise to treat it with care.

Agbowo started a little over a year ago. And it is an honour to work with such a wonderful team and a privilege to be able to curate art from such amazing minds.

Africa has such a deep wealth of brilliant artistes that it will be a great loss if the world didn’t get the opportunity to partake of the breathtaking beauty that is African art and here at Agbowo it is our mandate to display African art to the world.

Agbowo recently launched a digital magazine, titled X, a beautiful work of art from our contributing artistes. X is a juxtaposition of visual art, prose, poems, interviews, that bursts into a beautiful blinding light of colours that’s undeniable. get it here bit.ly/GetAgbowoX

We also revealed a new look, check it out. And we’re still accepting contributions, if you have something — Prose, Poetry, Articles, Interviews, Photography, Paintings, Drawings, whatever your art is really, send to us let’s see them. Let the world see them.

Connect with us

Instagram @agbowoart

Twitter @agbowoart

Check out the Art on agbowo.org