by US-born Nigerian gallery Adenrele Sonariwo was four years old when her family moved to Africa due to sudden events in 1990: her father inherited a role as a traditional Yoruba ruler in southwestern Nigeria. .
“My name, Adenrele, means ‘the crown is going back home’,” says the 37-year-old, who last month opened the art-focused Rele Gallery in Mayfair, London. to showcase Africa to an international audience.
Sonariwo, who was named one of New Africa magazine’s 100 most influential Africans in 2022, remembers participating in coronation festivities and walking in a procession long before her father received the crown, which rotates among a handful of ruling houses .
“There were a lot of pimps and pimps. I would go to school and come back and there was always one activity or another in and around the palace,” she says.
“There was a full program of events, stages were constantly being built, there was drama, music, food, fashion and a great show of tradition and world culture.”
Yoruba culture is complex, says Sonariwo. “My father was the traditional ruler of more than 32 towns for 26 years and even between those towns there are different cultures,” she says.
Sonariwo recently discovered that his Oríkì, a song or poem given to Yoruba children, was the same as that given to Peju Alatise, the Nigerian artist behind the inaugural exhibition of the new gallery in London .
“she [Alatise] reference to her in her work and it was during the planning process of the show that I realized we had the same Oríkì,” says Sonariwo. “We’re not even from the same town, but there’s a connection. There are many similarities and many differences.”
A gallery that originated in Nigeria, with locations on two other continents, is a conversational shift in itself
Adenrele Sonariwo
Yoruba culture has also traveled across borders. “I was in a restaurant in the UK – Chishuru – and I was delighted to see one of my favorite local Sagamu dishes on the menu,” she says. Last month, Chishuru founder and head chef Adejoké Bakare became the first black female chef in the UK to receive a Michelin star.
Sonariwo moved back to the US to attend college at the age of 15, before returning to Nigeria and establishing the first gallery Rele, in Lagos, in 2015. A year later, she launched an art foundation, which he has a successful program. of emerging artists entitled The Young Contemporaries.
“It’s been almost 10 years since we opened in Lagos and although our artists were getting recognition locally, I felt that these artists could benefit from the growth and exposure that would come from exhibiting internationally,” she says of the Mayfair gallery opening.
In 2017, Sonariwo was the chief curator of the first Nigerian pavilion at the Venice Biennale. When I saw that the African country was not represented at the biennale “there was a problem for me”, she says. Alatise was among the three Nigerian artists she chose for the pavilion.
Alatise’s show at Rele Gallery in London, We came With The Last Rain, is an exploration of Yoruba folklore and mythology. Some of her works relate to stories of rain and fertility. “A specific type of rain makes everything grow, with Oya, the rain deity, ensuring fertility,” says Alatise. One work, Flying Girls, tells the story of Sim, a nine-year-old girl who faces the challenges of present-day Lagos as a servant.
Opening a 3,000-square-foot exhibition space over two floors in London was a milestone for the gallery, which also has space in Los Angeles, Sonariwo says.
Few African women have established galleries on three continents. “A gallery that came from Nigeria, with locations on two other continents, is a conversation mover in itself,” says Sonariwo. “It shows what is possible and what can be achieved. It has allowed us to be able to tell comprehensive, multifaceted stories that are not restricted to the singular narrative that is said to be Africa.
Related: Palette to paycheck: Lagos gallery helping children make a living from their art
“My biggest inspiration is the artists I work with,” she says. “The fact is that some of them come from places of very low income and they see that, through their art, they can change the course of their generation. That’s the most important thing to me.”
As one of 17 siblings, family life taught Sonariwo “a lot about diplomacy, politics”, the skills she brings to her role.
“You have to learn how to navigate people’s emotions and personalities. It teaches you a lot about yourself. I love how it has helped me navigate life, even now.”
Peju Alatise on We Came With The Last Rain is on at Rele Gallery, 5-7 Dover Street, London, until 23 March 2024
