… Museum partners Yenwa Gallery, MAP to showcase four emerging West African artists
By Rashidat O. Okunlade | Lagos
The Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art (YSMA) at Pan-Atlantic University, in collaboration with Yenwa Gallery and the Myma Art Prize (MAP), has opened What Is Given, the inaugural Myma Art Prize Exhibition in honour of Dr. Myma Belo-Osagie, running from September 27 to October 21, 2026.
The exhibition, which first showed at Yenwa Gallery from June 13 to July 4, brings together the work of four emerging and early-career artists from Nigeria and Ghana, Omolola Coker, Emmanuel Ellis, Vincent Frimpong and Edward Prah whose practices engage questions of inheritance, memory, materiality, identity and place.
The YSMA presentation expands upon the original showing with additional works drawn from Dr. Belo-Osagie’s private collection, offering Lagos audiences a broader encounter with the artists’ evolving practices.
A Question at the Heart of the Work
The exhibition takes its title from a question central to the four artists’ practices: what do we do with what we have been given?
As curator and Yenwa founder Ugonna Ibe-Ejiogu writes, what is given may arrive as cloth, photograph, discarded material, memory, ritual or place; it may be experienced as generosity or burden. Across painting, photography, sculpture and installation, the artists do not simply accept what they inherit, they test it, rework it and return it to the viewer with new meaning.
From Yenwa to YSMA: How the Exhibition Travelled
The presentation at YSMA follows Museum Director Dr. Jess Castellote’s encounter with the exhibition during its inaugural showing at Yenwa. As a member of the inaugural Myma Art Prize judging panel, Castellote engaged closely with the works and was struck by the exhibition’s artistic quality, curatorial coherence and the range of ideas it opened up. He subsequently proposed that the exhibition travel to YSMA, where it could meet a broader audience within the context of a university museum.
For YSMA, the invitation represents more than the relocation of an exhibition. It reflects the Museum’s commitment to creating platforms where contemporary art can be encountered not only as an object of aesthetic appreciation, but as a vehicle for learning, research, critical thinking and public dialogue. The Museum will complement the exhibition with educational programmes designed for university and secondary school students.
“What struck me about What Is Given was not only the quality of the works, but the generosity of the questions the exhibition leaves with the viewer,” said Dr. Jess Castellote, Director of YSMA. “The works invite us to think about inheritance, memory, material and identity, but also about what we choose to do with what we receive. I felt strongly that this was an exhibition that deserved to be encountered by a wider public, particularly within the context of a university museum where art can become a starting point for learning, inquiry and conversation. We are delighted to work with Yenwa and the Myma Art Prize to bring this exhibition to YSMA and to extend its reach to students and other audiences.”
The Story Behind the Prize
At the centre of the exhibition is the story of Dr. Myma Belo-Osagie, whose decades-long passion for collecting Nigerian and Ghanaian art became the foundation for the Myma Art Prize. The prize was created by her children to mark her 70th birthday and to extend her philosophy of careful collecting and giving back into a structured platform for artist development.
Rather than functioning solely as an award, MAP is conceived as a development programme incorporating artist development, mentorship, exhibition opportunities and a physical residency for the grand-prize winner.
Dr. Belo-Osagie describes the initiative as an extension of her personal collecting journey and a means of supporting a younger generation of West African artists. The programme seeks ultimately to contribute to the wider creative economy by helping artists, alongside curators, gallerists, framers, transporters, insurers and other practitioners, participate more sustainably in the African art ecosystem.
‘A Prize Is a Particular Kind of Gift’
For Yenwa, whose founder and Curatorial Director conceived and curated the inaugural exhibition, the presentation at YSMA offers an opportunity for the exhibition to continue its journey beyond its first showing.
“A prize is a particular kind of gift. It does not only reward work already made; it makes new work possible,” said Ugonna Ibe-Ejiogu, Founder and Curatorial Director of Yenwa. “What Is Given grew from the artists’ different relationships with material, memory, inheritance and experience, but it also speaks to the larger philosophy behind the Myma Art Prize, that patronage should create conditions for artists to think, experiment, produce and be seen. Bringing the exhibition to YSMA allows these ideas to travel further, while placing the work in conversation with students, researchers and audiences beyond its original presentation.”
The exhibition also reflects the wider ambition of the Myma Art Prize to move from collecting art to actively supporting the people and structures that sustain artistic practice. In a statement in the inaugural catalogue, the Belo-Osagie family describes the prize as an effort to build “the infrastructure West African art production has long deserved” from stronger collector and curatorial networks to communities in which artists can build sustainable careers.
“My mother’s collection has always been about more than acquiring beautiful or important works; it has been about paying attention to artists and believing in the value of their practices, sometimes long before the wider world catches up,” said Junaid Belo-Osagie, who works closely with the Myma Art Prize team. “The Myma Art Prize grew from that spirit of attention and support. We are pleased that What Is Given is now travelling to YSMA, where the exhibition can reach new audiences and, especially, younger people who are beginning to think about art, creativity and the possibilities of a career in the arts. It is a fitting continuation of what the Prize was created to do.”
Education at the Core
The presentation at YSMA will be accompanied by a programme of educational engagements for university and secondary school students, designed to encourage close looking, discussion and critical engagement with the exhibition and the practices of its four artists. These activities form part of YSMA’s continuing commitment to using exhibitions as platforms for education and public learning.
Why It Matters
At its heart, What Is Given is an exhibition about receiving and responding, about the materials, memories, images, identities and histories that arrive before us, and the possibilities that emerge when they are not simply accepted as fixed.
As Ibe-Ejiogu writes in the curatorial statement, the exhibition asks “what these artists owe to what they were handed, what they are expected to make of it, and what remains theirs to refuse.”
With its expanded presentation at YSMA, What Is Given invites a new audience to consider the same question and, perhaps, to ask what each of us has been given, what we have made of it, and what we might choose to give in return.
What To Know About Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art
Described as “the apex of a collector’s aspiration to preserve his art” and voted Museum Opening of the Year by Apollo Magazine in 2020, the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art (YSMA) at Pan-Atlantic University is Nigeria’s leading art institution, committed to service and impact through the preservation and showcase of the rich artistic heritage of Nigeria. With an extensive collection of artworks spanning centuries, YSMA offers a diverse range of exhibitions, educational programmes and activities designed to create immersive experiences for visitors and to enrich the cultural landscape of the nation. www.ysma.pau.edu.ng
What To Know About Yenwa Gallery
Yenwa Gallery is a Lagos-based contemporary art gallery founded in 2021 by curator and designer Ugonna Ibe-Ejiogu. The gallery supports emerging and mid-career artists whose practices engage questions of cultural memory, identity and contemporary African life, while fostering meaningful connections between artists, collectors and wider audiences. Yenwa is committed to building a thoughtful platform for artistic experimentation, critical dialogue and the development of contemporary African art.
What To Know About Myma Art Prize
The Myma Art Prize is an artist development platform celebrating the next generation of visual artists from Nigeria and Ghana. Established in honour of Dr. Myma Belo-Osagie and endowed by her children, the Prize goes beyond a financial award to support artists through professional development, exhibition opportunities and a residency for the grand prize winner. The initiative seeks to contribute to a stronger ecosystem for contemporary African art and to support artists in building sustainable careers.
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