Contemporary Art from Nigeria in the Global Markets

"Jonathan Adeyemi’s book has arrived at the right time when the attraction for contemporary "African" art has never been so strong in the market and in the world of international contemporary art. It is appropriate to underscore the relevance of the intellectual project of this pioneering work. The book is an important contribution not only to the socio-economic approach of art markets and art worlds in Nigeria, and more widely, in Africa, but also to the socio-economics of art as a whole. It is also an important contribution to what the sociology of “globalization” should be. -Alain Quemin, Exceptional class professor of sociology of art, GEMASS – Sorbonne Université, Senior Member of Institut Universitaire de France "Given the strong interest in art from the African continent, this is an extremely timely book. Adeyemi offers the reader a new and original account of the evolution of a contemporary art world in Nigeria, and the integration of Nigerian art in the global art system, which is fraught with complexities and tensions for which Nigerian artists are facing an uphill battle. Based on interviews with many of the key players in the Nigerian art world, this book should be on the reading list of scholars interested in contemporary art from the African continent." -Olav Velthuis, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Cultural Sociology Program Group, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands This book brings together from four years of study on Nigerian contemporary art's internationalization. The monograph integrates voices of African (Nigerian) artists and art market players into the growing discourse on the emerging art markets in the global South. It explores the logic of competition and dynamics of power relations in the global markets, focusing on the internationalization of contemporary art forms from peripheral regions. The book confirms that the internationalization of contemporary art form from Nigeria is limited due to systematic marginalization in the artistic field, which in this case based on postcolonialism, and debilitating socio-economic factors such as outmoded art education, unstructured support system and weak mechanism for local validation, and an inefficient political framework for art governance. It will therefore be useful to students and researchers in the sociology of art, art market studies, art history and culture polity. Jonathan Adeyemi recently concluded a Ph.D. in Arts Management and Cultural Policy at Queen’s University Belfast.