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Two women with art galleries in Switzerland, London, Nigeria and the US talk about discovering and promoting new artists, building relationships with art collectors and the importance of supporting women in the art world.

Maria Varnava is Greek Cypriot and grew up in Lagos. She founded Tiwani Contemporary which has galleries in Lagos and London. It champions artists from Africa and its diaspora to raise their profile to collectors and institutions based both in and beyond the continent. Maria’s friend and mentor, the Nigerian curator Bisi Silva, proposed the name Tiwani, which loosely translates as ‘ours’ or ‘it belongs to us’ from the Yoruba language. The name was chosen to show the gallery’s intentions to strive for inclusivity.

Kendra Jayne Patrick, from the US founded her gallery of the same name in Bern, Switzerland in 2022 and works in New York too. She likes to show things that are strange or new and that excite her both visually and intellectually. It’s focused on the 21st century avant-garde, specialising in sculpture, painting, digital, and photography.

Produced by Jane Thurlow

(Image: (L) Maria Varnava, credit Pantelis Hadjiminas (P Studio). (R) Kendra Jayne Patrick, credit Ernst Fischer.)