'WE HAVE MADE ART OPEN TO EVERYBODY, BECAUSE IT'S A JOB'

How one creative is helping _ to put Nigeria’s cultural wealth on the world stage

- JENNIFER H. CUNNINGHAM and MATTHEW TOSTEVIN

In her namesake gallery in Lagos, Nike Davies-Okundaye shows off a painting adorned with the colors of both the Nigerian and American flags.

It's a stylized portrait of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited the gallery earlier this year.

Upstairs, an oil paint and canvas hewn image of Nigerian folk hero Fela Kuti peers out at potential customers. Davies-Okundaye's own large beadwork piece, depicting dozens of the mothers who demonstrated in Abuja a decade ago after insurgents kidnapped their daughters, is among some 5,000 works of art for sale in her space in the Ikoyi neighborhood.

Davies-Okundaye is a living testament to the cultural transformation that has brought new attention and appreciation to Nigeria's artists.

The artist and entrepreneur, 73, owns galleries across Africa's most populous country and has driven much of Nigeria's contemporary art evolution over the last generation. The country's artwork, formerly considered a luxury reserved for expats, has become what Davies-Okundaye calls a vehicle for social, economic and political change.