Virtual Museum of Modern Nigerian Art

The online Virtual Museum of Modern Nigerian Art (VMMNA) is a non-commercial initiative whose primary aim is to provide an easily accessible educational resource that can serve as first point of reference for students, teachers and art enthusiasts interested in learning about modern and contemporary art in Nigeria.
It is operated by the Pan-African University, Lagos

Pan-African University, Lagos

The Pan-African University, Lagos is a private, non-profit educational institution in Lagos, Nigeria.The university had its origin as the Lagos Business School , established in 1991...

, Nigeria, the parent body of the Lagos Business School

Lagos Business School

Lagos Business School is the graduate business school of the Pan-African University, Lagos, Nigeria. LBS is located in Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria...

.

The virtual museum went live in September 2011. It was created by Jess Castellote, a Spanish architect, and is managed by Akinyemi Adetunji. It has three virtual floors and ten gallery rooms, each of which is dedicated to a specific period or to a given school or expression.
The interactive website includes over 400 works from 81 artists, including pioneering Nigerian artists such as Aina Onabolu

Aina Onabolu

Aina Onabolu was a pioneering Nigerian modern arts teacher and painter who was an important figure in the introduction of arts into the curriculum of secondary schools in the country...

and Bruce Onobrakpeya

Bruce Onobrakpeya

Bruce Obomeyoma Onobrakpeya is a Nigerian printmaker, painter and sculptor. He has exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C...

and emerging artists such as Richardson Ovbiebo and Babalola Lawson.
Some of the objects are held in private collections and are on public display for the first time.

The virtual museum complements the Nigerian National Museum

Nigerian National Museum

Nigerian National Museum is a national museum of Nigeria, located in the city of Lagos. The museum has a notable collection of Nigerian art, including pieces of statuary and carvings and archaeological and ethnographic exhibits.Of note is a terracotta human head from Jemaa , part of the Nok...

, opened in 1957 in the city of Lagos. While the National Museum has an excellent collection that includes works from 900-200 BC, it lacks contemporary work. The virtual museum fills this gap.
Castellote has said that he hopes the virtual museum will help unknown Nigerian artists who have produced great works to become better known. He acknowledges that there may be problems such as ensuring authenticity

Authenticity in art

Authenticity in art has a variety of meanings related to different ways in which a work of art or an artistic performance may be considered authentic.Denis Dutton distinguishes between nominal authenticity and expressive authenticity....

and accuracy of information, but describes the site as a work in progress that will constantly evolve and improve.

About the VMMNA

There are 10 (Ten) exhibition rooms presently hosted under the VMMNA. All the rooms are modelled after major art schools and styles in Nigeria. The only exception is the Bruce Onobrakpeya exhibition room which is solely dedicated to the octogenarian print artist. (The rooms are as listed: The Pioneers, Zaria, Nsukka, Lagos, Yaba, the Osogbo Experiment, Ife, Auchi, The Future Now and Bruce Onobrakpeya.) More rooms shall be added as the museum expands.
Featured under the Museum are approximately 80 (Eighty) artists (to start with) randomly distributed among the rooms. The list is subjective, though prominence and impact on Contemporary Nigerian Art is a yardstick employed in the selection. The virtual museum is starting small, but we hope to gradually build it into one of the top educational resources on Nigerian Art. It is dynamic and is witnessing growth regularly.
The virtual museum will help disseminate and add to the body of existing knowledge on Contemporary art in Nigeria. The artworks online are spread to accommodate all themes, styles and type of works (Painting, Sculpture, Materialism, etc.) with major focus presently centred on Painting and Sculpture. The Virtual Museum is working with many Nigerian artists and collectors to pool these works.
For protection of artists’ and collectors’ rights, all reproductions /representations of artworks identify the artist who created them and the collection the works belong to; moreover, these artworks are reproduced in low resolution (72 dpi) so as to render them of little commercial use. Adequate consent and permission is requested before works are displayed.
An exhibition centre is provided for within the VMMNA to showcase exhibitions as they arise. The exhibition centre is designed to enable users browse through Past, Present and Up-Coming exhibitions.
Users can search the museum’s database for artists’ profiles and artwork titles, etc.; the VMMNA strives to keep an updated profile of artists and each artwork is appropriately curated, with accompanying artwork title, dimension, date of creation, medium, etc.
The VMMNA provides external links to articles, papers, journals, or other domains providing added information on a subject or artist; this helps users gain a rounded knowledge.

About the VMMNA

See also