Majid Biggar studied law in uni but he never practiced, since he always had an early interest in arts and creativity. Even as a kid, he’d do a lot of drawing and graphics designing, which was a foreshadowing of his future career path. It was no surprise that straight out of university, he found himself in the art industry. For about ten years, he has been working in the industry as a Program Manager, Art Advisor, and Art Curator. He is currently a gallery manager at 202 Gallery, which is a gallery in Ikoyi, Lagos, that just launched last year, in October. And so far, they have had up to three exhibitions.

We all know who an art curator is, (at least I do, I did my research) but for the sake of this interview, can you tell us what your job entails?

As an art curator, my job primarily involves me organising and executing art exhibitions, and basically all the different processes and layers that are involved in putting on an art exhibition. So, people see an art show and just look at it as art on the wall, but there’s so much that goes into it. There’s talent spotting, so looking for artists that I think would resonate either with my clients or with the art markets internationally or locally. There’s project management, so, having to look at all the factors involved in an art exhibition, from actually meeting and working with the artists, to doing things like, promotion, installation, media, You know, all those different things. And then finally, putting it together, executing it, making sure there’s a good buzz, there are clients, and sales. That’s basically what an art curator does. They are primarily responsible for the organization and execution of arts exhibitions.

How did you first become interested in curating, and what path led you to your current role?

Like I said, I’ve always had a very close connection to art, even from a young age. My uncle used to run a gallery in Lagos, in the early 2000s and so when I got out of uni and I needed a job, I was looking for something to do. He suggested and pointed me to the direction of the art industry. And as soon as I found myself in it, I knew that I loved it. This was about 10 to 11 years ago, and I’ve been there ever since. What defines your curatorial vision or approach when selecting and organizing exhibitions? Can you walk us through your curatorial process when developing an exhibition—from concept to installation?

So first of all, as an art curator, my personal primary focus would be on enhancing and amplifying emerging voices. So when I’m putting on an art exhibition, I first of all like to look for emerging–that is young to medium age–artists who have not yet really had that breakout. They might be doing good work, with great social media presence, but in the actual art market and in the gallery space they might not yet have had that opportunity to really shine. So that is primarily my focus, looking for these hidden gems, finding art that not just looks good, but has substance behind it. So as a curator, I like artworks that are not just as pretty. They should have a message, a theme or a narrative running behind them. I also have narratives or themes that I like to explore in the shows that I curate. So if I’m curating an art exhibition, and the theme is something like migration, for instance, I would look for emerging artists who have strong visual artworks and a narrative that also fits around migration.

How do you balance personal taste with institutional goals or public expectations when selecting artworks?

It’s actually not completely at my discretion. I pick the artist, tell them the narrative, you know, the vision for the exhibition in terms of what I want to achieve at the end, and I give them the creative freedom to translate that idea into their own visual vocabulary. When they’re creating the artworks, it already aligns with the vision that I have from the start. But of course, they would share the work with me, It’s a very close process between me and them. So when, eventually, they give me an artwork, it already fits. We work closely towards executing the idea I have in mind. I’m not picking people to paint the way I want, I just want them to execute my idea in their own visual style. When I’m picking the artist, I’ll look at other factors like, okay the way he paints, the artwork he already produces, is this something that aligns with my gallery’s brand? Is this something that I think my collectors would like? The whole process involves thinking about things beyond, “this guy paints nicely”. What trends or shifts are you currently observing in the contemporary art world that excite or concern you?

Well, I guess I would say that, uhm, I am excited about the shift in focus from figuration artworks. So, figurative artworks are when an artist just paints a person, a face, a portrait. A couple of years ago, it was really the most prominent in the International art scenes. We used to see a lot of black figurations, basically just paintings of a black person, a black mother, black woman. But now we’re starting to see a shift from that towards a more diverse focus to help artists that are now more comfortable in painting what they want to paint instead of what they think they should paint. So you can have someone who’s working with recycled objects, you can have someone who’s doing film, someone who’s doing performative arts. I think now there’s more diversity in terms of what artists are actually putting out there, and also, what galleries are picking up. That is a trend that excites me right now.

Can you share an artwork or artist that profoundly changed the way you think about art?

I guess I’ll say the first time I saw a painting by Yusuf Grillo in real life. He’s one of the masters in Nigerian art, I don’t know who to compare him with but he’s a very well-known, very respected, Nigerian artist. He’s dead now. His artworks are so high-profile, they’re valued at 300,000 USD and above. He paints really well. I would see his works in pictures and catalogues and magazines, and not really be able to understand the concept of an artwork being that high value. But the first time I saw it, and I saw the way he painted, it really resonated with me, and I could actually, for once, see an artwork that I knew was priceless just by looking at it. I can’t remember the exact artwork, but it was the first exhibition that I worked on as a young gallery intern. The exhibition was called Igi Araba by Arts House Contemporary. It was an exhibition of about 30 paintings. He had paintings on canvas, on wood. He even had stained glass, like, those types of artworks you’d see in cathedrals. The whole experience was very memorable. It wasn’t about just one artwork, it was that whole exhibition that changed the way I viewed art as a whole. So, I would say Yusuf Grillo.

Beyond financial value, what other criteria do you use to evaluate the significance and long-term potential of a work of art?

Beyond the financial value, I guess you would look at the aesthetic value because it’s an artwork at the end of the day, and ideally you would want an artwork that is aesthetically pleasing or aesthetically strong. Then the strength of the artist is important too. Does the artist behind that artwork have the potential to grow and expand? Is it someone that you think that if they had ten years in the industry, they would expand and would keep on improving themselves. So the artists as well play a part in how valuable an artwork is. And then the narrative meaning, for instance, let’s say the artwork was created to talk about a very historical, or very monumental cultural movement, that would also amplify the value of that artwork beyond just the financial, because it has cultural value. It has a meaning as well.

How do you approach discovering emerging artists, and what advice would you give to artists looking to gain representation or recognition in the market?

I think it’s an approach that varies from curator to curator. But for me personally, during the scouting phase Instagram is a very fertile ground. So somewhere that you can go and you can see the artwork by an artist. And usually artists would be posting over a number of years, so just by going through their Instagram page, you can kind of track and see their growth. You can see the difference between what they posted this year and last year, which already gives you a basic idea of the capacity for the growth of an artist. And then once that intrigues you to learn more about the artist, you want to engage the artist. Personally, we reach out to them on WhatsApp or over a phone call, I could even meet up with them in person. Ask them for their portfolio which shows you, not just the artworks, but also the idea behind it. They’ll usually have an artist’s statement, kind of describing them, explaining their thought process. Why they created their artwork, what it means or signifies. That just gives you an idea, so you know he’s not just painting. He’s actually trying to pass a message, he’s trying to explore this theme or this topic. If the artwork looks good, the artist seems to know what they’re doing, you can see that they grow, or they have grown in the past, and they are not just literally painting the same thing over and over, then you can tell that if you gave them the platform to reach a different audience, their work would resonate.

Has there been any artists that you specifically scouted, who are now doing bigger things?

Yes, there have been several. I have curated exhibitions for over four years, I would say I have worked with over 20 or 30 emerging artists, so I wouldn’t really feel like it’s fair to highlight one or two, but yeah, there have been several. But I guess I can say one. Her name is Ejiro Fenegal. She’s a female sculptor who does really, really amazing work. I remember the first time I saw her artwork, she had done maybe one or two local exhibitions, and then she was in an exhibition that I curated personally. Then we put her in ArtXLagos, where she completely sold out! She’s really talented as a sculptor and particularly as a female sculptor because we don’t have a lot of emerging female sculptors. Her work is amazing, and she has been able to get a lot of international recognition. But she’s not the only one, there have been several others that I could mention as well.

Could you share a particularly challenging or rewarding project you’ve worked on, and what key lessons did you learn from it?

I would say my first solo curated exhibition, it was called Crossroads, with SMO Contemporary Art. It was the first exhibition I curated on my own. My boss literally gave me the space to just put together everything without her oversight. It was challenging because I had to deal with so many different factors that I did not realise, even though I had worked in the art industry for a number of years by that point. But at the end of the day the reception to the exhibition was really great, it had a good turn out. Everybody that came to the exhibition loved the artworks, and the artists themselves were very pleased. I think a number of them, if not all of them, have gone on to have further exhibitions and showcases on their own. It was a very rewarding experience and it gave me even more insight into just what it takes to actually be an art curator.

What advice would you give to artists who are looking to gain representation or recognition in the market? I guess it’s to stick to their authentic selves, to not let their artistic voices be compromised by the search for recognition. I like it when an artist continues to be themselves and just continues to grow and do what they love instead of what they think would bring them recognition. So my advice would just be to keep grinding and to make sure that you maintain and project your authenticity at all times.