A cross-cultural celebration coinciding with major African art exhibitions in London and the announcement of Frieze Abu Dhabi
Lot 5: Oluwole Omofemi (Nigerian b. 1988), I See It. Estimate: £15,000 – £20,000.
At a time of unprecedented global interest in Middle Eastern and African art, Olympia Auctions presents an opportunity to buy into this dynamic new market. Its sale of Modern & Contemporary African and Middle Eastern Art on Wednesday, 29 October 2025, brings together an exceptional selection of works tracing the evolution of artistic expression across Africa and the Middle East from early postcolonial pioneers to today’s most exciting contemporary voices.
The 66 lots have been curated by two of London’s foremost experts in the field, Head of Sale Janet Rady, and Elikem Logan, who recently joined Olympia Auctions as Sub-Saharan African Art Consultant. Both will be happy to offer insight and guidance to anyone wanting to explore this hugely significant new area of scholarship and collecting.
The Olympia Auctions sale is set against the backdrop of Nigerian Modernism at Tate Modern, Kerry James Marshall’s powerful paintings of Black Americans at the Royal Academy, and the Serpentine Gallery’s large-scale mural by celebrated South African Dr Esther Mahlamgu. Frieze, opening this week, is likely to include more modern and contemporary African art than ever before, and the recent announcement that Abu Dhabi Art will be transformed into Frieze Abu Dhabi from 2026 means that artists from Africa, the Middle East, and the Global South will become known to an even larger international audience.
From public display to private collection
Lot 6: Ben Enwonwu MBE (Nigerian 1917-1994), Untitled. Estimate: £20,000 – £25,000
Olympia Auctions offers the opportunity to engage with established and emerging artists (some featured in these major public exhibitions) on a more intimate level—and to take them home. Sale highlights include Ben Enwonwu MBE’s 19 ‘Untitled (1945)’ (estimate: £20,000 – £25,000), which uses the classical European tradition to depict an everyday scene of rural Nigerian life, Oluwole Omofemi’s ‘I See It’, (estimate: £15,000 – £20,000) representative of the new wave of Afrocentric portraiture, and Lady with the Branches by Johnson Ocheja, a self-taught Nigerian painter with his own distinct style in the emergent tradition of black figuration (estimate £8,000-£12,000).
South African Highlights
A lyrical watercolour by one of South Africa’s most celebrated landscape artists, Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (1886–1957), Kahn Rivier, SWA (estimate £5,500–£7,500), dates from his first trip to Namibia in 1923. The journey marked the beginning of Pierneef’s enduring engagement with the Namibian landscape, which he portrayed as vast, pristine, and largely untouched by human presence. Cecil Skotnes (1926–2009) is revered for pioneering new techniques that used earth pigments and indigenous wood, and for referencing the rich body of African precolonial visual culture. Also known for his teaching, he fostered creative potential in marginalised communities and inspired successive generations of young artists. His Still Life with Fruit is estimated at £1,000–£1,500.
A strong showing of South African women artists includes weavers from the Rorke’s Drift Art and Craft Centre who, during the 1960s, produced tapestries both for income and as a means of coded resistance under apartheid. Boys Challenge (estimate £1,500–£2,500) shows how they wove allegory and protest into richly coloured narratives now recognised as landmark achievements of African modernism.
Sculptor Maureen Quin (b.1934), whose bronze Animal Bird Man on Bench is estimated at £2,200–£2,800, uses dynamic forms to explore human emotion, empathy and resilience. Her six-decade career has earned her numerous awards and representation in major South African museums. Also to be found in significant public and corporate collections is Gail Catlin (b.1948). Here, Totem Figures (estimate £2,000–£3,000) evidences her determination to capture the iridescent colours of Nature and her conquering (after many years and with the help of scientists at Imperial College London) of liquid crystals – “painting with diamonds”. 
Lot 11: Esther Mahlangu (South African b. 1935), Untitled (Tray with Ndebele pattern). Estimate: £1,500 – £2,500
Completing the South African selection is Dr Esther Mahlangu’s (b. 1935) Untitled (Tray with Ndebele Pattern) (estimate £1,500–£2,500). Famed for transforming Ndebele mural traditions into a contemporary visual language, Mahlangu’s vibrant geometry — applied to village walls, a BMW Art Car, and, here, a humble tray — has brought her worldwide acclaim, and her mural for the Serpentine Gallery can be seen until March 2026.
Wider African Perspectives
Malian painter Famakan Magassa (b.1997) (estimates £1,000–£3,000) is represented by two works that balance satire and allegory through his signature elongated figures — a visual language rooted in West African folklore yet alive to global themes. Steve Bandoma (b.1981) is among the leading voices of a new generation of Congolese artists whose work interrogates identity, power and consumerism. His Posers (from the Ecstasy Series) (est. £2,500–£3,500) are a vivid collision of fragmented bodies, advertising imagery and gestural abstraction. Theophilus Tetteh (b. 1991), a figurative Ghanian artist profoundly shaped by the principles of Impressionism, has two works in the sale which, typical of his style, capture the daily movements and subtle interactions of local people in his home city of Accra, drawing attention to the vibrancy of urban life (estimates £1,500-£5,000).
Further south, Zimbabwean artist Brett Charles Seiler (B.1994) continues to push boundaries with his emotive mixed-media works exploring love, identity, and Queerness, while Soly Cissé (b.1969), one of Senegal’s foremost contemporary artists, captures the rhythm and vitality, the music, fashion and exuberant social gatherings of postcolonial Senegalese society while alluding to tensions that lie beneath (estimate £2,000-£3,000).
Egyptian and Middle Eastern Art
The Middle Eastern section is equally rich, with one highlight being a series of works by Saudi Arabia’s Abdulhalim Radwi (b.1939), a prominent sculptor, curator and poet whose artistic practice was shaped
by both his cultural heritage and modernist influences, and whose international success paved the way for the development of modern Saudi art. His Untitled (Fish) of 1996 is estimated at £13,000-18,000.
A focus on Egyptian art includes Untitled (from the Alexandria Series) (est. £4,000–£9,000 by the much-travelled Egyptian Canadian artist Anna Boghiguian, whose work is currently showing at Turner Contemporary, Margate. Four works by Chant Avedissian (est. £2,500–£8,000), two of mosques, show the influence of his long-term partnership with the architect Hassan Fathy, while two delicate watercolours by Inji Efflatoun (est. £6,000–£8,000) typify her “white light” period following her release after imprisonment for political activism under Nasser. Tahia Halim has several pictures in the sale, including a lyrical Figures on a Boat (est. £4,000–£6,000), inspired by her return to Nubia during the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Typical of Halim, the painting is a visual diary, using vivid colours, earth tones, bold figuration, and impasto techniques inspired by both Coptic and Ancient Egyptian styles to depict scenes of daily life. 
Lot 40: Tahia Halim (Egyptian 1919 – 2003), Cross-legged female figure. Estimate: £6,000 – £8,000
Beyond Egypt, the sale includes Canadian Libyan Arwa Abouon’s lightbox work Jnan Nuwarr (Estimate £1,500–£2,500), reflecting the late artist’s meditation on faith, tradition and identity. And from the father of Syrian Impressionism, Nasser Chaura, there is a notable landscape from 1949 in his impressionist style, before he abstracted in the mid-1960s (estimate £8,000-£12,000).
Janet Rady, Head of Sales at Olympia Auctions, says, “This sale underscores the incredible momentum behind African and Middle Eastern art. From early postcolonial pioneers to the current generation of international trailblazers, these artists have redefined the global art narrative—and the market is responding with unprecedented enthusiasm.”
Elikem Logan comments, “It is both innovative and refreshing to see African art presented alongside work from the Middle East, creating a platform that reflects the shared dynamism and global resonance of these regions. The African highlights span the breadth of modern and contemporary practice — from revered modernists such as Ben Enwonwu to the singular voices of artists like Malangatana. Together, these works speak to the strength, diversity, and enduring influence of artistic production across the continent.”
With estimates ranging from £700 to £25,000, the auction offers opportunities for both new and established collectors.
Modern & Contemporary African and Middle Eastern Art will be on view at Olympia Auctions, 25 Blythe Road, London W14, from 24 to 29 October 2025, with the live auction taking place on Wednesday, 29 October at 12 pm. For more information and to bid online, visit www.olympiaauctions.com.
