For the past few years, I have come to the conclusion that it is fruitless chasing the big galleries in Nigeria (if and only if) you are an upcoming Nigerian artist without an art degree.
It is better to just grind online and identify yourself as a so called "outsider artist". Ignore the big galleries because they would reject you except you have started making waves on your own. They would come to you when you don't need them anymore, and has already started making a name for yourself independently.
Change is the only constant and those old "gate keeper" are getting obsolete. The traditional way of doing things are getting lose in the digital age. Now we have artist selling digital NFT for millions of dollars on their own without a gallery (having their own collectors and fans).
Even before the 2020 global pandemic and subsequent lockdown, many traditional galleries in England were closing down in mass. These days, the big galleries are active online and the majority of their follower are aspiring artist that are mostly ignored by these galleries.
This is just my opinion as a 12 years veteran online artist. I have made up my mind to never try to "suck up" to any big galleries. I reject them because they were useless when I needed them the most.
