African Art Gallery Aggregator Launched in Nigeria.
The first African Art Gallery Aggregator has been launched with ten Nigerian galleries that represent more than two hundred and fifty artists. The space expects to grow and incorporate new Nigerian and African galleries in the upcoming months.
Over the past few years, African art has become highly famous and has gotten new records in prices. In 2018, the Nigerian artworks ‘Tutu‘ by Ben Enwonwu and ‘Bush Babies‘ by Njideka Akunyili Crosby reached the excessive prices of $1.68 million and $3.41 million at Bonhams and Sotheby’s auctions respectively.
According to Ana Acha, the founder of Aworanka; ‘‘Unfortunately, the prices seen at international auctions are far from what the galleries or artists receive for their work. Our main objective is to support the development of the African art industry and give value to galleries and artists so that they can access markets abroad and receive fair prices for their work.
Creating an online database and selling online is an expensive and time-consuming process. At Aworanka, we minimize those costs by supporting different galleries at the same time. In fact, galleries don’t pay anything for the subscription and there is only a fee whenever an artwork is sold”.
Buyers on Aworanka will benefit from the security and transparency processes established by the marketplace. Besides being the number one marketplace for African art, Aworanka wants to become the primary source of information for collectors, investors scholars and art enthusiasts.
”We already have a database of over one hundred biographies of African artists online, we have started publishing interviews and we expect to launch our reports section in 2021. We are open to collaborate with any institution or organization that, like us, wants to promote African art all over the world”, Ana Acha stated.
