Who are Art Entrepreneurs.
For me, I see them as art enthusiasts, those who follow art like a second skin. These people show the world a different side of the art space and draw people to love them like they
do.
Here is a list of entrepreneurs who have invested more in their business, to ensure artist have a chance to share their works, ideas and voice to the world.
Tokini Peterside
Tokini Peterside-Schwebig is a Nigerian entrepreneur dedicated to defining a new narrative about Africa through culture. She is the Founder & CEO of ART X.
Tokini obtained a law degree with first class honours from the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) and an MBA from INSEAD.
After working in luxury brand management for Moët-Hennessy (part of the LVMH Group) as Head of Marketing in Nigeria, she founded in 2012 a strategy consultancy that cut across fashion, culture and luxury. Through this company, Tokini developed businesses with pioneering entrepreneurs such as ALARA, the David Adjaye-designed luxury concept store, conceived by Reni Folawiyo; and Maki Oh, an award-winning fashion designer label worn by Michelle Obama and Lady Gaga.
In 2016, Tokini reconfigured the company and created ART X Lagos – West Africa’s first and leading international art fair. The fair, described by the Financial Times as “a reflection of Nigeria’s potential on the global scene”, has since become a cornerstone of the African art sector and has contributed significantly to the positioning of Lagos globally as a fast-emerging cultural capital. ART X Lagos has successfully exposed over 80,000 visitors to Africa’s and the Diaspora’s leading artists.
Simultaneously Tokini launched additional platforms to support emerging talent: ART X Live! – a dynamic accelerator for rising musicians and artists, and the ART X Prize – Nigeria’s leading award for visual artists. In 2018, she led ART X’s presentation of a special contemporary art exhibition at the New Afrika Shrine, to welcome the visiting French President, Emmanuel Macron, on the occasion of his first official visit to Lagos.
A keen art collector and patron, Tokini also currently serves on the boards of organisations such as Yinka Shonibare’s GAS Foundation, and EMOWAA (the Edo Museum of West African Art) among others.
She was named one of the 40 Under 40 in Africa by Apollo in 2020; one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company USA in 2019; and was featured in 2018 on the Quartz Africa Innovators list of the continent’s Top 30 pioneers. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, the Financial Times, Le Monde, Vogue and more.
She lives between Lagos and Paris.
Adenrele Sonariwo
Adenrele Sonariwo is a Nigerian entrepreneur and art curator. She is also the daughter of the 18th Akarigbo of Remo, the traditional ruler of 33 towns in Ogun state and through such previladge, Sonariwo was exposed to visual art from a young age. She spent a number of years living in the US, having left Lagos to study at Howard University and worked as an accountant for PwC, but later changed course and headed to the University of the Arts in London. Now, she is the founder of the Rele Art Gallery, the first African contemporary art gallery to establish an outpost in Los Angeles. In 2016, Sonariwo set up the Rele Arts Foundation, which presents the Young Contemporaries show and the associated boot camp, which provides mentorship, critique and weekly stipends to young artists.
Touria El Glaoui
Touria El Glaoui was born and raised in Morocco. Her father is the figurative painter Hassan El Glaoui, one of Morocco’s most renowned artists who is best known for his portrayals of fantasia horsemen.She completed her education in New York before beginning a career in the banking industry as a wealth management consultant. After 10 years in the field she relocated to London, where she started 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in 2013, aiming to share her love for Africa’s bustling cultural scene with a broader public. Through this job, El Glaoui gained exposure to the continent. She considers her learnings from this era to be foundational to her work as the director of 1-54. She has since launched the fair in New York in 2015, and in Marrakech in 2018. 1-54 is now a world-leading platform dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. Parallel to her career, Touria has organised and co-curated exhibitions of her father’s work, Moroccan artist Hassan El Glaoui, in London and Morocco. She has spoken widely and chaired numerous discussions on contemporary African art and women in leadership at leading institutions and events globally. Touria El Glaoui was listed amongst the 50 most powerful women in Africa by Jeune Afrique magazine in 2015, 2018 and 2019. She is Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République Française since February 2019.
Rahman Akar
Akar was born in Sierra Leone in 1954 where he grew up among a collection of antiques, primarily African, that his father had collected during his travels. After studying chemical engineering at Exeter University in the UK, Akar returned to Sierra Leone in the 1970s and started to collect everything from Ogboni altarpieces and Yoruba masks.
He developed a keen interest in modern and contemporary artists and moved to Nigeria in the early 1980s. Throughout this period Akar, initially focused on older artists such as Ben Enwonwu and Demas Nwoko, then later added emerging contemporary artists, for whom he often provided mentorship and subsequently exhibitions when he opened Signature African Art gallery in 1992 in Africa. Only recently did he get a new space in London to introduce a new generation of African artists to the UK and European markets.
