Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation and Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F.), with the support of Deutsche Bank, invites applications for three residency opportunities in 2027 as part of Project Nexus, G.A.S. and Deutsche Bank’s residency and professional development programme.
Two fully supported residencies are open to artists living and working anywhere in Nigeria, alongside a third, part-funded residency for an artist from the global Nigerian Diaspora. There is no requirement relating to career stage. We are interested in the strength and direction of an applicant’s practice, the questions they are exploring, and how they would use the particular context and resources of a G.A.S. residency to develop their work.
Residency 1: Visual Arts and the Environment
G.A.S. Farm House, Ikiṣẹ, Ogun State
11 January – 26 February 2027 | 8 weeks
Fully supported (Internal travel & stipend award, accommodation, studio)
Applications are open to visual artists living and working anywhere in Nigeria whose practice would benefit from an extended period of research and making within the rural environment of the G.A.S. Farm House. The opportunity welcomes artists working across a broad range of visual and material practices, including ceramics, sculpture, painting, drawing, film and moving image, photography, installation, textiles and fibre, printmaking and interdisciplinary or material-led practice.
This residency is particularly intended for artists whose work connects with the environment and material conditions of the Farm House. Proposals might explore subjects including ecology, agriculture and food systems; landscape and biodiversity; natural or locally available materials; craft and making traditions; sustainability and material cycles; relationships between land, labour and culture; or the ways environmental knowledge is carried through communities and generations.
Residency 2: Photography
G.A.S. Lagos
8 February – 5 March 2027 | 4 weeks
Fully supported (Internal travel & stipend award, accommodation, studio)
Applications are open to photographers living and working anywhere in Nigeria for whom photography is a principal part of their creative practice. The opportunity welcomes a broad understanding of contemporary photographic practice, including analogue and digital photography, documentary and conceptual approaches, portraiture, constructed image-making, experimental processes, photographic archives and practices that move between photography and other media.
The residency offers dedicated time for research, experimentation and the development of ideas. Applicants do not need to propose a completed body of work. Instead, the residency is intended for photographers seeking to investigate a question, develop an existing area of practice, experiment with new approaches or begin something new through a period in Lagos.
Proposals might engage with Lagos as a site of research and encounter through its people, built environment, histories, communities, visual cultures, material life, archives, ecologies or rapidly changing urban conditions. Applicants may also wish to draw on the G.A.S. Library and Picton Archive, and the wider artistic community and networks around the Foundation.
Residency 3: Nigerian Diaspora Visual Artist
G.A.S. Lagos
8 March – 2 April 2027 | 4 weeks
Part-funded (accommodation, studio and stipend provided)
Applications are open to artists from the global Nigerian Diaspora who would benefit from an extended period of research, experimentation and engagement in Nigeria. This opportunity is open to artists working across visual and interdisciplinary practices, including painting, sculpture, photography, film and moving image, installation, ceramics, textiles and fibre, printmaking, performance and other material or research-led forms.
The residency offers an opportunity to undertake sustained research and develop connections with artists, practitioners, researchers and cultural networks in Nigeria. Proposals might build upon existing areas of enquiry, establish new relationships with Nigerian contexts, histories or material practices, or create space for a new direction within an artist’s work.
Applicants should note that this is a part-funded residency rather than a fully funded award. The residency does not include international travel or visa costs. Residents will also be responsible for their own travel/health insurance and any other personal or project-related expenditure not specifically identified as being provided by G.A.S. Applicants are encouraged to seek additional mobility, travel or project funding from arts councils, foundations, cultural agencies, universities or other funding bodies where appropriate.