Artists Push Beyond Accolades in LIMCAF Alumni Show ‘Legacy’
A new exhibition, Legacy, opening on September 20 at the 1952 Africa Gallery in Lekki, Lagos, is making waves by redefining what it means to build upon early success. Rather than simply celebrating past winners of the Life In My City Art Festival (LIMCAF), the show spotlights how artists evolve, experimenting with identity, material and medium to make bold artistic statements.
Alumni Who Refuse to Rest on Laurels
Legacy features nearly 60 works by former LIMCAF top winners. These artists use their past victories not as endpoints, but as launchpads into new territories of creativity.
Some of the artists and their distinctive approaches:
Okechukwu Eze draws distorted figures and unsettled compositions, creating tension and uncertainty in his canvases, prompting reflection on memory, representation and impermanence.
Ngozi-Omeje Ezema blends ceramic work with installation, challenging traditional ceramic form and engaging the viewer spatially, to immerse them rather than merely show.
Chichetam Okoronta, who originally trained in information technology, now works with charcoal, producing drawings that oscillate between realism and surrealism. His work uses cracks, scars and fractured forms as metaphors for both resilience and vulnerability.
Shade Fagorusi employs hand-stitched embroidery over painted surfaces. Working on non-traditional fabrics, cement sacks, sugar sacks, damask, aso-oke, she weaves narratives of memory and feminine experiences, suggesting that identity is both stitched together and worn.
Lucky Ezah, a sculptor and multimedia artist, transforms found materials, wood, metal, objects with history, into pieces that act as social commentary, elevating what might be dismissed as debris into emotionally potent work.
What ‘Legacy’ Means Here
According to Ayo Adewunmi, art director of LIMCAF, the aim of the initiative is more than recognition, it is “to promote art as a tool for youth empowerment and national development.”
The exhibition underscores that legacy need not be static, rather, it is an ongoing journey. The show’s artistic energy is dynamic and even confrontational: ideas are interrogated, norms challenged, and expectations unsettled. This isn’t a quiet homage to past triumphs; it is a declaration that the work continues, evolves, and pushes boundaries.