“In five years, ArtMiabo Festival has platformed, documented and celebrated more than 421 artists from Africa and beyond, much of it at our own cost. Our mission remains clear: REPRESENT THE UNREPRESENTED”  – Miabo Enyadike

Miabo Enyadike is a visual artist with a vision for every step she takes. She is a lioness and an achiever who loves challenges to change the stereotype narrative we are used to and allow as normal process. On her Instagram page, she opens up what people must have been trying to unravel about this chapter in her life concerning organising a festival. She says, “five years ago, I took what many considered a crazy step. I created ArtMiabo International Art, AMIAF.”

 

Words Ireho Aito | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Miabo Enyadike courtesy ArtMiabo Instagram. All Photographs credit Benjamin Oladapo

Miabo Enyadike is bold and strong as a character to have done this in a challenging society where supporters may be very rare to find and bring on board. Many have thought of such ideas but were dead on arrival due to frustrating elements along the way.

She is a Nigerian visual artist, art entrepreneur and founder of Artmiabo International Art Festival (AMIAF). A Fine and Applied Arts Education graduate of the University of Ibadan, she has built her career around promoting African art, connecting artists with collectors and creating platforms for creative exchange. Since founding her gallery in Port Harcourt in 1998, she has continued to expand her contribution to the art ecosystem through Artmiabo, AMIAF and her Art Clinic, where she shares practical ideas on discipline, visibility and building sustainable careers in art.

“As an independent artist who had owned galleries, represented artists and sold my own work, I kept seeing the same problem: too many talented artists were underrepresented, undervalued and disconnected from the people who could move their careers forward,” she states about her personal experience in the art business.

This observation from her even formed her art clinic where she shares daily nuggets to underrepresented artists and those ones that are already in the circuit but are finding it difficult to connect with the market they need. Such an individual is very rare to find in this kind of market.

She continues on her social platform and shares her concerns again. “So I built a different kind of platform,” she opens up. “There was no major funding. I pitched the vision to friends, family, collectors and individuals who believed in what ArtMiabo Festival could become. Five years later, many are still standing with us,” she reminds everyone about this genuine support for the vision.

For her, ArtMiabo Festival is ARTIST – FIRST,” she wrote boldly on her platform that has become a school for mentorship to channel the right path for disillusioned artists.

Five years on, the festival that started its first edition in Lagos has connected artists with collectors, buyers, media and institutions. Miabo states, “if an artist doesn’t sell during the exhibition, our work doesn’t end there.”

The festival, today, has grown from a focused celebration of artistic practice into an annual platform connecting artists, collectors, curators and wider audiences.

AMIAF first edition in 2022 opened with “Recycled Art / Eco-Art Focus,” drawing attention to sustainability and the creative possibilities of recycled materials; the second edition in 2023 moved into music and visual culture with “Arts in Afrobeats,” exploring the relationship between contemporary art and Nigeria’s globally influential Afrobeats culture; the third edition in 2024 turned firmly towards sculpture with “The Sculptors Odyssey,” celebrating the journeys, struggles and achievements behind sculptural practice, with the festival held in Victoria Island, Lagos, from April 29 to May 1, 2024; and by its fourth edition in 2025, AMIAF had moved into the wider creative economy with “Artconomy: Redefining the Global Art Experience,” examining the relationship between art, commerce, technology, investment and the global art economy.

Miabo continues to encourage the artists by assuring them everyone is in this together. And there is no room to leave anyone behind. “We create publicity ànd digital documentation, blog about artists, produce interviews and podcasts, circulate portfolios privately to collectors, pursue commissions and exhibitions opportunities and build relationships beyond the festival,” she maintains.

The fifth edition, presently ongoing in Abuja has drawn unprecedented attention to the festival. In fact, the visuals and photographs already circulating from different platforms are enough testimonies that ArtMiabo International Art Festival has come to stay and it has already created a unique voice on the art and culture events not only in Nigeria but the globe as a whole.

This year’s edition is themed around: African Art, Heritage and Legacy : Celebrating Art, Culture and Creativity.

Since its first edition, ArtMiabo International Art Festival has established features that makes it more than a conventional exhibition. The festival has created space for artist recognition and awards including special recognition for the Nigerian modernists and legends, celebrating established and emerging practitioners and, in the third edition, honouring sculptors whose practices have contributed to the story of African sculpture.

The festival has also developed a strong curatorial dimension, with artists such as Yusuf Durodola playing a significant role in shaping the exhibition experience, while interviews and conversations around the artists’ practices have become part of the festival’s storytelling.

Across the editions, AMIAF has brought together different forms of artistic expression, including painting, sculpture, performance, textiles and digital experimentation, while maintaining conversations around sustainability, professional development, the art market and the wider creative economy. In this way, the festival has gradually established itself as a meeting point not simply for looking at artworks, but for artists, collectors, curators and cultural thinkers to exchange ideas, recognise contribution and consider where African art is going.

Miabo Enyadike, the festival director explains on her Instagram page, once more, “this year, we added ‘Artist Meets Artist,’ bringing participating artists together to interview, learn from and support one another,” she reveals. “Because artists don’t only need audiences. They need ecosystems.”

She has also come out to share some of the positives from ArtMiabo International Art Festival in five years, “through the commitments of our patrons, we have secured direct financial support for more than ten artists, enabling them to develop and execute significant projects.” She continues, “these interventions have generated measurable value within their immediate art communities, reinforcing our commitment to building sustainable opportunities. “

ArtMiabo International Art Festival comes to an end on the 4th of October 2026.

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