Introduced this year as a special extension of the ART X ICON exhibition, The Masterclass will spotlight 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 invite photographers who approach their practice with similar purpose — those who see their work as living archives — to be part of The Masterclass. Through an open call, 10 photographers whose practices engage with memory, typology, and culture as record will be 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 offers participants the rare opportunity to learn directly from a guardian of this legacy.
A selection of participants will later present their work publicly in Lagos, bringing the archive into the city.
The ICON Masterclass seeks to:
- Preserve and extend the archival eye through photography.
- Create public dialogue between legacy and now.
- Offer tangible visibility via city-scale showcases.
The ART X ICON: Masterclass is sponsored by Zenith Bank.
Masterclass Elements
- The Masterclass
10 selected photographers will explore 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 will reflect on how their work can function as both record and imagination.
This session invites them to archive the future — to see the present as history in motion, creating with precision, care, and vision. In Ojeikere’s spirit, they will consider what a future African archive might look like: ethical, communal, and alive to everyday beauty.
- Public Showcase
Following the masterclass, three photographers will be selected from the 10 participants of the Masterclass whose work responds to Ojeikere’s legacy of precision, typology, and the archive-as-art,
The final three photographers' works will be translated into outdoor formats — one that reflects disciplined seeing, collective memory, and the future imagined through an exacting eye.
The three photographers selected will receive a grant of N1,500,000 each
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
Application Process
To apply for the ART X ICON: The Masterclass, photographers are invited to carefully review all the information and practical details provided in the open call before submitting their application.
Please note, the application deadline is Wednesday, 29 October 2025 at 11:59 PM WAT
APPLY HERE