Museum · Onikan
National Museum Lagos
Nigeria's national collection: Nok terracottas, Benin and Ife bronzes, and the car in which Murtala Mohammed was assassinated in 1976.
Look for: The Ife heads.
Check opening hours
Go further, look closer.
Cities · Africa · 6°27′N 3°24′E
Lagos
Africa's largest city, and the engine of its contemporary art market: galleries, fairs, a biennial and private foundations.
Best monthsNovember (Art X Lagos) and December–February
Art calendarArt X Lagos (November) · Lagos Biennial · Lagos Photo Festival
This guide4 essentials · 5 places off-piste
Essentials
Art centre · Yaba
Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos
Founded by the curator Bisi Silva in 2007, a library and project space that trained a generation of curators.
Look for: The library.
Free
Gallery · Lekki
Nike Art Gallery
Five floors of Nigerian art, crammed and generous, run by the textile artist Nike Davies-Okundaye.
Look for: The adire textiles.
Free
Galleries · Ikoyi
Rele and Kó galleries
Two of the galleries that have shaped the new generation of Nigerian art: Kó for modern masters and photography, Rele for young painters, many showing for the first time.
Look for: Whoever is having their first solo show.
Free
Off the list
Off-Piste in Lagos
Rooms, ruins and curiosities: the city's other museum.
Park · Lagos Island
Freedom Park
The colonial Broad Street prison (1882), where independence leaders were held, turned in 2010 into a memorial park, open-air stage and gallery.
The remaining prison walls.
Architecture · Lagos Island
Brazilian Quarter (Popo Aguda)
Houses in the Brazilian Baroque style, built by formerly enslaved people who returned from Brazil and Cuba in the 19th century. Many have been demolished; the survivors are worth seeking out.
The Shitta-Bey Mosque (1894).
Artist house · Ikeja
Kalakuta Republic Museum
Fela Kuti's last home, now a museum with his clothes, saxophones and record covers, and a rooftop bar.
The bedroom, left as it was.
Architecture · Iganmu
Wole Soyinka Centre (National Theatre)
The 1976 theatre shaped like a general's cap, built for the FESTAC '77 festival of Black and African arts. After years of decay it was restored, renamed after Wole Soyinka and reopened in October 2025.
Look from the Eko Bridge, then go to a performance.
Bookshop · Awolowo Road, Ikoyi
Jazzhole
A bookshop and record shop crammed with Nigerian literature and highlife, Afrobeat and juju vinyl, and a café where Lagos writers meet.
Ask what to listen to.
Nearby
Osogbo
The Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove and Susanne Wenger's sculptures, about four hours by road.
If you have one day
National Museum → Freedom Park → lunch → Nike Art Gallery → the New Afrika Shrine in the evening.