Tiwani Contemporary

Tiwani Contemporary is committed to connecting global artists and international audiences, opening space for dialogue about experience and belonging. Over the past 13 years, the gallery has become preeminent in championing artists from Africa and its diaspora to collectors and institutions based both in and beyond the continent. At its locations in London and Lagos, Tiwani Contemporary is known for its nuanced, engaging presentations of work by emerging, mid-career and established artists. 

The gallery was founded in London in 2011 by Maria Varnava, a Greek Cypriot who grew up in Lagos, with the guidance of her friend and mentor, the internationally renowned Nigerian curator Bisi Silva (1962-2019). Silva proposed the name Tiwani, which loosely translates as “ours” or “it belongs to us” from the Yoruba language, as a distillation of the gallery’s intentions to strive for inclusivity and attend to the particular meanings and circumstances of the work of individual artists.
Coinciding with the 10th anniversary of its founding, in 2022 the gallery inaugurated its space in Victoria Island, Lagos. In 2023, it opened its new premises in Mayfair, London. The gallery’s exhibition programme resonates across its two spaces while remaining attuned to the specific contexts and possibilities of each.