Nike Art Gallery Lekki

West Africa's largest independent contemporary African art gallery.

Founded by Nike Davies-Okundaye

The gallery takes its name from its founder, Nike Davies-Okundaye, an internationally renowned Nigerian textile artist specializing in traditional adire (indigo dyeing) and batik techniques. She opened her first arts center in Oshogbo in 1983, later expanding her network to Ogidi-Ijumu, Abuja, and finally Lagos, where the Lekki Phase 1 site became the largest and most visited of the group. Over the decades, Nike Davies-Okundaye has trained more than 3,000 Nigerian artists, particularly women, in traditional textile techniques, making her gallery network as much a social project as an artistic one.

A Five-Story Building Dedicated to African Art

The Lekki building, spread across five floors, displays more than 8,000 works ranging from contemporary painting to sculpture, traditional textiles, and photography, sourced from artists across Nigeria and other African countries. This diversity and scale make it West Africa's largest independent art gallery, a status that attracts both international collectors and curious visitors wanting to discover the contemporary Nigerian art scene in a non-institutional setting, unlike organized fairs such as Art X Lagos.

A Childhood Shaped by the Adire Tradition

Born in 1951 in the small village of Ogidi-Ijumu in western Nigeria, Nike Davies-Okundaye was introduced to the art of adire by her great-grandmother after the deaths of her mother and grandmother when she was just seven years old. This intergenerational transmission shaped her entire later career, built around a strong conviction: passing on traditional textile skills for free to generations of Nigerian artists through her network of art centers, rather than reserving that teaching, paid, for an elite few.

International Recognition Beyond the Art World

Beyond her artistic influence, Nike Davies-Okundaye has been honored with one of Italy's highest national awards, the Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana, for social work in Italy where, starting in 2000 at the request of the Italian government, she trained more than 5,000 Nigerian sex workers in adire and weaving techniques. This initiative, also recognized by the United Nations, illustrates the deep social dimension of her career, extending well beyond art into women's economic empowerment and reintegration, a philosophy that continues to run through her entire gallery network, including the one in Lekki.

Contact Information

• Address: 2 Oba Yekini Street, Elegushi, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos
• Phone: +234 803 403 8939
• Official Website: https://nikeart.com