At 29, Oyinkansola Dada seamlessly blends law, art, and fashion, shaping cultural landscapes between Lagos and London with her visionary spirit.
There’s a phrase, “You can be everything you want to be, but not at the same time.” Oyinkansola Dada has abided by this, not intentionally. She is a lawyer, editor, curator, cultural connector, and gallerist. She splits her time between Lagos and London, never fully abandoning one for the other, and continues to shape the art, fashion, and culture landscapes in both.
In the late-morning glow of a quiet London day, Oyinkansola Dada sits with the kind of centred calm that betrays a year lived at full speed. She has had a fast-paced month. With the Lagos Art season in November and the fashion season in Late October, Dada has gone from sitting front row at the Jermaine Bleu show at Lagos Fashion Week to attending Art exhibits. Dada played both passive and active roles during both seasons, as she hosted a themed fashion party — Lagos is Burning — which saw fashion figures like Eniafe Momodu dressed to the nines.
Beyond the fashion party was a dining experience to celebrate the launch of the Dada Gallery. While the official date of the gallery falls on December 3, Dada held a dinner and previewed the first exhibition called “The Beautyful Ones”. The title borrows from Ayi Kwei Armah’s 1968 novel “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born”, a searing portrait of disillusionment in post-independence Ghana. The exhibition featured diasporic voices to explore how identity and belonging are often remade across distance, return, and remembrance. It included works by Yagazie Emezi, Sahara Longe, Silvana Mendes, Cece Philips, Taylor Simmons, Larissa de Souza and Ebako Ugbodu.
Now, in this exclusive interview, she recounts her experience at the Art and Fashion Week in Lagos. She’s back in London, not for long, but for an escape. “I’ve been here for less than a few hours, so I haven’t settled in,” she says on the call. Her voice is soft, yet assured, every sentence delivered with the practised clarity of someone who has spent years litigating arguments by day. She has lived more than one life, and now she is here to discuss her next chapter in art, fashion, and the pleasure of being seen.
The becoming: The real story behind raising an It girl
This is the year Dada calls transformative, a word that barely captures its weight. The launch of Dada Gallery’s permanent space in Lagos — months of construction, curation, and vision distilled into a single November night — marks the moment her quiet intentions became public reality. Yet the seeds were planted years before, long before the magazine, the exhibitions, the art-world recognition, and even before the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 nod that placed her name in international circulation.
“I always knew this was coming — just not when,” she jokes. Her story begins, as many Nigerian stories do, in a large and lively family. The tenth child of nine older siblings, Dada describes her childhood as a mix of discipline and drama. She was the head girl in both primary and secondary school, a top student with a mischievous streak, the girl who excelled academically but also jumped into every performance opportunity — drama, press club, dance, modelling, anything that allowed her to shape how a story was told.
“I’ve always been very ambitious,” she says, chuckling at the understatement. “Always involved in something, always in the centre of things. It feels like I’ve carried that into adulthood.”
But her path to art wasn’t linear. She studied politics first, then law, pursuing a career that was stable, structured, and intellectually demanding — qualities she still values. “Once you’re a lawyer, you’re a lawyer for life,” she notes. “I wanted that foundation.”
For years, she lived a dual existence: corporate law by day, art curation by any hour she could reclaim as her own. Burnout roared at the edges; passion tugged elsewhere, and slowly, the inevitable choice inched closer.
“What people don’t see is how long it took,” she expresses. “I needed money saved, I needed confidence, I needed experience. I knew this was what I wanted to do fully — I was just waiting for the moment it made sense.”
Now, that moment arrived in 2025. She resigned, exhaled and built.
The Lagos return: A city on the brink of a cultural rebirth
Her relationship with Lagos is not one of typical nostalgia—it is one of vision. She’s not relocating fully, but she is returning with purpose. “I’ll be spending more time there,” she says. “The creative community is vibrant. That’s my favourite part of Lagos.”
When she touched down recently, it was a homecoming disguised as strategy. Her now-iconic ‘Lagos Is Burning’ party—an intoxicating blend of fashion, art, and fearless self-expression—made its annual return, perfectly timed to coincide with Lagos Fashion Week and ART X Lagos.
The images flooded social media: fashion kids in avant-garde silhouettes, art-world insiders draped in metallic fabrics, and a scene that looked like a Studio 54 descendant transplanted into contemporary West Africa. It is audacious and vibrant, but how did this party come to be?
Originally born as her 25th birthday party, “Lagos is Burning” has evolved into a cultural fixture — one of the city’s most photographed creative gatherings.
“It’s always been about community,” she explains. “A safe space to express yourself, meet people, and celebrate creativity. That’s core to our mission.”
The fashion girl you didn’t see coming
Though known primarily as a gallerist, Dada is undeniably a fashion girl. Anikela once described her as the ultimate Kadiju girl, a loyal muse to the Nigerian label Kadiju. Her affinity for maximalism, sculptural tailoring, and plush textures has become part of her visual identity.
“When I was younger, every school event was a fashion moment,” she says, laughing. “I took time to think: What am I wearing? What shoes? I was always obsessed with clothes.”
Her fashion language matured alongside her eye for art; both intuitive, both rooted in curation. “To be a good gallerist, you need an eye for beauty,” she declares. “Fashion and art go hand in hand. I curate them both.”
Her circle reflects this intersection: Kadiju’s founder, Oyindamola Aleshinloye, is a close friend. Jermaine Bleu — who invited her as a guest for Lagos Fashion Week — is another. Eniafe Momodu, who styled her for the event, is part of this growing constellation of talent she calls family, and a community she hopes to create.
Dada Magazine: A paper monument before the space existed
Before the gallery, there was the magazine — a tactile manifesto for a brand without a physical address. Dada Magazine began as a once-a-year publication, a reference point for art lovers seeking emerging talent, interviews, essays, and commissions that transcended the sponsorship-heavy approach typical within Nigerian print culture.
“We didn’t have a physical space,” she explains. “So the magazine was our presence, our representation. I wanted people to walk into bookshops, see Dada, and remember what we stand for.”
It worked, now they have a space, and the magazine lives within the gallery’s new library, a place where visitors can read, reflect, and immerse themselves in the creative world she’s building.
The future and the gallery: A slow, intentional haven
The permanent Dada Gallery opens again on 3 December 2025, an airy, minimalist space anchored by its debut exhibition, “The Beautyful Ones”, featuring seven artists from Brazil, the UK, the US, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. Painters. Sculptors. Photographers. A global chorus in conversation with Lagos.
She plans to have more exhibitions in the future. Each show will run for at least two months — an intentional contrast to the hyperfast pace of typical gallery rotations.
“Art needs time,” Dada insists. “People should be able to come back, reflect, attend workshops, engage deeply.”
When asked about the future, her answer is simple: “To do more.” But the simplicity is deceptive. More means more artists, more exhibitions, and more investment in Lagos as a global art hub. It means more talent unearthed, nurtured, and elevated. And more locations across the world — an ambition she speaks of carefully, yet confidently.
Dada saying she wants to build a community undersells her prospects. In reality, she is building an ecosystem.
