By Alithnayn Abdulkareem.

The Launch of Art365 is a right step in the online evolution of African Art. Often, African art suffers from an error in perception, its identity often feels forced and misunderstood. Despite the nuances, one has to encounter either by being born, being raised, or living on the continent for a significant time. Generally, African Art has been sold packaged and defined as one thing, when it is so much more, with a myriad of forms and executions.

When the late Chinua Achebe, spoke of literature written in English, he remarked that Nigerians would do unheard of things with the language. By breaking established rules to follow, he pioneered and created a movement of literary heads in his wake. African Art is overdue for that kind of revolution. Already with the success of the first ongoing, Lagos Biennale, and the seventh year of West Africa’s Largest Art Fair taking place soon, along with the largest photo festival in the subcontinent, numerous showcases, we are witnessing the overdue merger of finance, and art. In the contemporary Nigerian landscape, no organization better personifies that than GTBank.

Guaranty Trust Bank has a history of supporting and championing the niche sides of culture. With its slew of successful web series, Gidi Up and Skinny Girl in Transit (among others), and a food, and fashion festival behind it, it only makes sense that art is the next great frontier. Art has been the next, great, last frontier of African culture, according to the POPCAP Prize for contemporary African photography director, Benjamin Fuglister.

Art 365, the online website, created by Guaranty Trust Bank is soon to be filled with amazing, diverse and important works which will exclude the filter of Eurocentrism, and still fulfil global standards with its quality. Featuring works like the impressionist pieces of Ade Odunfa, and the watercolours of Gbenga Olatunji Aguda. The market is more than ready for an online marketplace. Art represented in its respectability and resplendence is available to buyers and admirers alike.

To join the ranks of illustrious festivals, and increasing publications covering art, the bank has found a niche with its online presence where it has tailored an experience which suits the soon-to-be largest collection of youths in the world, most millennials will be from Africa in a decade.

The millennial generation more than any other is barraged with thousands of images, every day, it makes sense that the overwhelming assault will leave one craving a niche, the place to go and fulfil one’s African Art cravings, without the politics of identity. It also provides a platform for, not only viewing but purchasing the works of globally resonant, yet homegrown artists. It is a chance to showcase the best of African art, without the pretension of wine filled events. One can simply, from behind their computer access a world of art and engage in discourse without any social discomfort.