Introduced this year as a special extension of the ART X ICON exhibition, The Masterclass spotlighted emerging talents in dialogue with the legacy of an African legend.
The inaugural 2025 edition pays homage to J.D. ’Okhai Ojeikere, whose disciplined eye transformed everyday forms into living archives. His practice modeled a rigorous archival gaze — rooted in repetition, variation, and the dignity of the everyday aesthetic.
This year, we invited photographers who approached their practice with similar purpose — those who saw their work as living archives — to be part of The Masterclass. Through an open call, 10 photographers whose practices engaged with memory, typology, and culture as record were selected to participate in a guided session and workshop.
Led by J.D. ’Okhai Ojeikere’s son, Amaize Ojeikere — a photographer and archivist — the session offered participants the rare opportunity to learn directly from a guardian of this legacy.
A selection of participants later presented their online in Lagos, bringing the archive into the city.
The ICON Masterclass sought to:
- Preserve and extend the archival eye through photography.
- Create public dialogue between legacy and now.
- Offer visibility via city-scale online showcases.
The ART X ICON: Masterclass is sponsored by Zenith Bank.
Masterclass Elements
- The Masterclass
10 selected photographers explored J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere’s philosophy — his disciplined eye, respect for form, and deep ethics of representation. Through themes of typology, formal clarity, consent, and the city-as-archive, participants reflected on how their functioned as both record and imagination.
This session invited them to archive the future — to see the present as history in motion, creating with precision, care, and vision. In Ojeikere’s spirit, they considered what a future African archive might look like: ethical, communal, and alive to everyday beauty.
- Online Showcase
Following the masterclass, three photographers were selected from the 10 participants of the Masterclass whose work responded to Ojeikere’s legacy of precision, typology, and the archive-as-art and will be showcased online in Lagos.
The three photographers selected received a grant of N1,500,000 each
Announcing the photographers recognised for excellence in the ART X ICON: The Masterclass
From this remarkable cohort of Masterclass participants, three photographers distinguished themselves for their rigorous vision, clarity of language, and sensitivity to the world around them. Their work demonstrated not only technical excellence, but a profound understanding of photography as a living archive — one that documents, questions, and re-envisions our shared realities.
We are proud to present the 2025 award recipients of excellence in the ART X ICON: The Masterclass:
- Taslimah Woli
- Daniella Almona
- Amarachi Nnoli
Discover the visionary talents selected as the 2025 ART X ICON Masterclass award recipients for excllence by clicking here.
Eligibility & Entry Requirements
- Applicants must be emerging or aspiring photographers aged 30 years or younger
- Applicants must be based in Nigeria and available in Lagos on November 8th and November 9th for the masterclass