Aderemi Adegbite

Born in 1982 and based in Lagos/Nigeria.

Aderemi Adegbite is a self-taught interdisciplinary artist and the founder and artistic director of the Vernacular Art-space Laboratory Foundation, an artist initiative for artist-run projects. In addition, he recently created the Tutùọlá Institute – conceived as an alternative artistic/cultural platform for critical reflection and practices in our postcolonial world.

He has completed certified scholarship programs in the fields of small and medium enterprises and media and communication run by the British Council, as well as programs at the Pan African University, Lagos and at the University of Glamorgan/UK (2008–2010).

Adegbite held the roles of curatorial assistant to Prof. Awam Amkpa on the traveling exhibition Africa: See You, See Me (2011–2013), initiator/curator of Iwaya Community Art Biennial (ICAB Lagos) 2021 and artistic director/curator of communal re-imagination – an alternative community art school project (2018–2022), and was also a subject curator at the John Randle Center for Yoruba Culture and History (2019–2022).

Some of his past residencies and workshops include the Biennale Jogja residency program with Ruang Mes 56 (2015), a residency at the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS) (2015/2016), Bayreuth/Germany, artist-in-residence at HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts (2017), Dresden/Germany, and participation in the Grigri Pixel residency program (2017), Madrid/Spain.

His exhibitions include The PATH of Those Whom YOU Bestowed Favour (2022) at the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA Lagos) curated by Dr. Lekan Balogun, Gazing at COVID-19 in Arts and Beyond (2020) at Iwawalewahaus, Bayreuth (virtual exhibition), Where I’m Coming From (WICF) (2020) at Guest Project Digital, UK, City Prince/sses (2019) at Palais de Tokyo in Paris/France, curated by Hugo Vitrani and Fabien Danesi and City and The Missing Link (2017) at Hole of Fame, Dresden. His poetry collection Romance and Reasons was published in 2017.

Adegbite received funding for Tutùọlá Institute from White Money (2021), a project initiated by Flinn Works and funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste, Berlin/Germany 2021, as well as a Multiplier Lab Grant (2021) from the British Council, Nigeria, and a Next Generation Grant from the Prince Claus Fund for Communal Re-Imagination (2018), an alternative community art school project in Lagos.