Team

ADEREMI ADEGBITE
Artistic Director

Aderemi Adegbite is a multimedia artist born and raised in Iwaya community. As an interdisciplinary artist, Aderemi’s current focus questions individual realities and truth(s) that stretch(es) across the societal fabric as constants for an elastic socio-system. He is interested in how past experiences (agonies, joys, businesses, travels and religious beliefs) of being part of a family reshape the individual’s present conditions, and serve as catalysts for “the” surrealistic future. The psychological effect of the idea “one for all, all for one,” is at the centre of his new interventions achieved through photography, video art and recently, installation.

Aderemi created and curated a monthly literary art project, Poetry Potter, between 2006 and 2010. Also, in collaboration with the Centre for Contemporary Art Lagos (CCA Lagos), he initiated and curated P.A.G.E.S – a project that serves as the confluence of literature and visual art. Between 2012 and 2013, Aderemi joined the travelling exhibition – Africa: See You, See Me – where he worked as an assistant to the Curator, Professor Awam Amkpa.

Aderemi has participated in some residencies and workshops: Bayreuth with Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS), Indonesia with Biennale Jogja XIII, Berlin with NeueSchulefürFotografie, Photography Masterclass with Akinbode Akinbiyi in Lagos, Goethe-Institut’s Photographers Master Class at the LagosPhoto Festival 2013 and The Nlele Institute African Centre for Photography workshops series, Lagos OPEN RANGE 2015.

LEKAN BALOGUN, PhD
Conference Convener 

Lekan Balogun, award-winning playwright, international essayist and scholar, was born and raised in Iwaya. He studied for a Bachelor of Art and Master of Art with Distinction in Theatre Art at the University of Lagos, Akoka. He won a Doctoral scholarship for his PhD research on Postcolonial (Shakespeare) Adaptation/Appropriation in African, African-American and Caribbean literature and theatre, as well as in the broad area of Cross-cultural Performances at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has presented papers at international conferences in the US, UK, Taiwan, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.

He also has essays and book chapters published in some of these countries. Between 2007-2009, he was on the Royal Court Theatre “New Writing in Nigeria” Project, sponsored by the British Council, Nigeria and Genesis FOUNDATION, UK, on which he attended an international playwrights’ workshop at Sloane Square, London; co-writer in 2012 of THE POWER PLAY, by the FLINN Theater, Germany, and has also written plays commissioned, read and/or performed for the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC), the National Troupe of Nigeria, National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) and several others. He is also on the editorial board and serves as a reviewer for several national and international journals. He is a member of several international associations including British Shakespeare Association (BSA), European Shakespeare Research Association (ESRA), Australasian Association for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies (ADSA).

OMOKEKO OLUFELA
Head of Media & Communications

Omokeko Olufela is a student with the Institute of Chartered Accountant Of Nigeria (ICAN) and currently the Station Manager of the Vernacular Art-space Laboratory – Val Foundation. Prior to when he joined the artistic world, he has a vast experience as Administrator/facility manager in a leading telecommunication firm.

He is a social critics, Trend developer, Writer and a participant at the social enterprise media boot camp in 2014. He has worked as a volunteer during the First edition of Lagos Biennial 17- and Iwaya Community Art Festival 2016 & 2017 respectively and a visitor to many art exhibition organized within Lagos. He is the brain behind the ArtCcountant Brand. A brand he personally developed to promote art through the accounting profession. Olufela is presently a participant at the ongoing project, Communal Re-Imagination, an alternative community art school in Iwaya Community, initiated by  Vernacular Art-space Laboratory Foundation.

SEED ADEGBITE
Creative Director

Seed Adegbite is a designer, photographer and a lover of print. He was born in Lagos and grew up everywhere else. His passion towards art as made him to serve as art and creative director to many projects in private and public firm.

In 2003, he co-founded IIMAGIN with his best friend and wife, Tega Adegbite. At IIMAGIN, his work encompassed brand identities, prints, photography, and creative technology.Alongside this, he has served as a Design Director/Creative Director to other Lagos Creative agencies.