Resilience: Africa’s art market growing in spite of Covid

Although it’s still early to assess the full impact of COVID-19 on the African contemporary art market, initial signs seem to indicate that it’s weathering the storm very well. Benefitting from an international collector base, fluency with online display and sales, and a cohesive, collaborative, and inventive community of gallerists, African contemporary art continues to achieve impressive sales.

Sotheby’s modern and contemporary African art sale opened online on March 27th, three days after lockdown came into force in the United Kingdom. Hannah O’Leary, director and head of modern and contemporary African art at Sotheby’s, was pleasantly surprised by positive sales. In the end, the auction brought in $2.9 million, setting new auction records for five artists: Cameroonian photographer Samuel Fosso, Mozambican painter Bertina Lopes, Zimbabwean painter Richard Mudariki, Tanzanian painter Elias Jengo, and Nigerian painter Shina Yussuff.

Valerie Kabov, co-founder of EAAGA and director of First Floor Gallery Harare, in the capital of Zimbabwe, has been making sure her artists have flu shots, internet access, and medical care should it be needed, as well as planning for the future. Lockdown has been relaxed in Zimbabwe, meaning Kabov can go to work, even if she can’t open the gallery. The EAAGA’s members are swapping ideas, sharing advice, and helping one another with logistics in the face of a relaxing of lockdowns across the continent and big questions still being raised over the nature of coronavirus.

Kabov and Taylor are focusing on online sales and content, and maintaining contact with their audiences and collectors through Zoom and social media. Both said sales have been better than expected.
“We spoke to one of our Nigerian collectors who said, ‘To me, there’s been no change at all, other than I can’t travel,’” said Kabov, although the crash of oil prices globally will have a knock-on effect in both Nigeria and Angola.

In London, Ayo Adeyinka, director of TAFETA, a West End gallery specializing in contemporary African art, was carried through March on buoyant sales made at TEFAF Maastricht and The Armory Show. Then lockdown came into force in the U.K., and in April, the gallery saw an expected but severe 80 percent drop in sales compared to the previous year.
Adeyinka doesn’t feel this is the time to aggressively pursue sales—people’s concerns are elsewhere, and that includes collectors. In an initiative to mitigate the shortfall, he launched Six for Six, whereby he lends work to his collectors for six weeks, and if they fall in love with it, they can pay for it over six months (or in one discounted payment). The unorthodox offering is paying off, he said.

Sources: Africa.com, Artsy

Please follow and like us: