For the pilot edition of its Open Studio Series, Lianna Foundation & Gallery invited artists Chinaza Nkemka and Lawal Olanrewaju to transform the gallery into their personal workspaces—offering visitors an intimate view into their creative processes.

This inaugural event marked the launch of a recurring initiative focused on artistic transparency, conversation, and public engagement. Rather than presenting finished work in a formal exhibition setting, the Open Studio offered a day of in-progress exploration. Visitors were invited to drop in, meet the artists, contribute to a Pin-up Response Board, and join an evening artist talk.

Chinaza’s mixed-media works explored emotion, memory, and abstraction through layered texture and colour, while Lawal’s Kegs Series reimagined the plastic gallon as a sculptural object and metaphor for resilience, identity, and everyday survival.

The event was not only a soft, generous way to encounter art, but also a reaffirmation of Lianna’s commitment to building artist-led, community-rooted platforms that prioritise process and exchange.