Coronation Art Gallery has officially opened its latest exhibition, The Value of Belief — Collectors, Conviction and the Making of Cultural Futures, in Lagos.
The opening, held last night at Coronation Plaza, brought together senior executives across the Coronation Group, business leaders, art collectors, artists and members of the media.The event was also attended by Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede CFR, Chairman of Coronation Group, alongside members of the Group’s Board.
The exhibition features works from the private collections of three prominent Nigerian collector-patrons — Kayode Adegbola, Kola Aina and Seyi Ajibola.According to the gallery, the collectors’ decades of deliberate and conviction-driven engagement with art have contributed to the development of Nigeria’s contemporary art landscape.
Managing Partner, Coronation Capital, Kayode Akindele, said the exhibition demonstrated the importance of creating spaces where collectors, artists, clients and business executives could engage meaningfully.
“Last night reminded us why spaces like this matter. The conversations in that room, between collectors, artists, clients and executives, could not have happened anywhere else,” Akindele said.
He described The Value of Belief as an exploration of conviction and the willingness to recognise value before it gains wider acceptance.
“The Value of Belief is ultimately about conviction: the willingness to see worth before the world agrees, to commit before there is consensus, and to hold on long enough for something lasting to take shape,” he said.
Akindele added that the approach reflected the role of the featured collectors in supporting Nigerian art, noting that it also resonated with the work of Coronation Group.
“That is what the collectors in this exhibition have done for Nigerian art, and it is not far from what we do for a living. We are proud to have given that conviction a room,” he said.
Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Coronation Group, Ngozi Akinyele, said the exhibition reflected the organisation’s broader understanding of prosperity beyond financial returns.
“At Coronation, we have always believed that prosperity is measured in more than financial returns. What we preserve, the talent we enable, the stories we carry forward and the legacies we leave — these are equally real expressions of wealth,” Akinyele said.
The exhibition forms part of Coronation Art Gallery’s expanding programme aimed at creating greater engagement between art, culture, business and society while highlighting the role of collectors in shaping Nigeria’s cultural future.
Hadizat Giwa