African women are doing great things in the contemporary art space.
The multi-talented artist, architect, and author Peju Alatise recently inaugurated Rele Gallery, the first and only contemporary African art gallery on Dover Street in London.
Rele Gallery was founded in 2015, and for the next six years contributed immensely to the contemporary art landscape of Lagos, and exhibitions outside Nigeria. In 2021, it opened its first international gallery in Los Angeles, and this year, it came into London with fanfare, hosting Glasgow-based Nigerian, Peju Alatise’s inaugural exhibition ‘We Came with The Last Rain’ (February 23 – March 23, 2024).
kudos to Peju Alastise, who keeps pushing boundaries. Central to ‘We Came with the Last Rain’, is the tale of “Flying Girls,” a fictional exploration that features nine-year-old Sim, a young girl forced to navigate the challenges of modern-day Lagos as a rented-out servant. The storytelling winds around the sad existence led by children (referred to as ‘Almajiri’) who are sent to Islamic boarding schools, but end up roaming the streets for survival, begging for alms.
‘We Came With The Last Rain’ invites viewers to immerse themselves in the multi-dimensional narration of Yoruba folklore and mythology, as well as the sublime creativity that defines Alatise’s work.
For Sonariwo, Rele Gallery is a significant milestone accomplishment, as few African women have established galleries in London’s Mayfair, or even across three continents.
