Nigerian curator Aderele Sonariwo was once decribed by fashion magazine Vogue as "one of the coolest women in Lagos." She's also made a business out of art. Her Rele gallery showcases outstanding African artists in Lagos, Los Angeles and London.
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00:00My name is Adinrele Shonairo, I am the founder of Relay.
00:05We have three locations, one here in Lagos, Los Angeles and in London.
00:11We've been in existence for about 10 years now, so we're a contemporary art gallery.
00:16So I started curating or maybe showing art about 15 years ago.
00:22I had moved back to Nigeria from the U.S. where I was, I'd been working as an accountant
00:28or an auditor for the four years prior.
00:32And so in coming to Nigeria, back to Nigeria, I was really just curious about the art scene,
00:37I was curious about the creative scene.
00:39And so I would spend a lot of time in artists' studios, I would visit them, and I just saw
00:44that there was a gap, they needed a space to exhibit, to be free.
00:51And so I started off with pop-up exhibitions, really, and then graduated to starting a gallery.
00:59I was born into a traditional Yoruba family, and so yes, being exposed to that environment
01:10obviously shaped me, it was a good part of my formative years.
01:15Understanding the food and the vibrancy of the festivals and all the different traditions
01:22that we lived in day-to-day was exciting to me, and it's a big part of who I am today
01:30and why I do what I do.
01:37We're a gallery that represents both male and female, but yes, as a woman, I do have
01:42a bias towards female artists, and just because I understand what it means to be a woman,
01:49I understand the expectations that people have around female artists, you know, whether
01:56they can or cannot succeed in the space.
01:59And so, not so much trying to prove them wrong, but just almost trying to just be a platform
02:07that can elevate women.
02:09We don't have enough stories of what it means to be a woman and a female artist in the visual arts.
02:17I don't think they get their due recognition.
02:19An artist like Tonya, whose work is in there, she has a condition called PCOS, and we find
02:24that even though women can connect with the work, men are also educated and enlightened
02:30by the work.
02:31You know, the first time we started working with her, the way in which she had visualized
02:35that presentation was she was showing some of the positions and postures that her body
02:40takes when she starts to feel pain, and for the first time, you know, a man walked in
02:48and said, you know, wow, this is me being able to, in a way, understand what my wife
02:55could be going through, because my wife has PCOS, and I just never thought of it in this sense.
03:00There are some stories that are best told by women, because we embody it, we breathe it,
03:04you know, we live it.
03:05You say we have three major tribes, but you and I both know that it's more than that,
03:23it's like hundreds, right?
03:24And you can never run out of stories, even just from one country, not to talk about the
03:31entire region.
03:33So we can only do as much as we can, but I think the core message there is that Africa
03:38is not a monolith, you know, we have diverse stories and diverse perspectives, and the
03:44challenge to us is how do we share that as best as we can, and that's what we strive
03:49to do every day.
03:51And so it's one thing to be here locally, it's another thing to be able to take their
03:55work internationally and share those perspectives internationally, and that, for me, is the
04:00reason why, if I could, open all around the world, I would, because I feel like the stories
04:08are important and the stories need to be shared.