About

Omo Osagie St, Ikoyi, Lagos, 2019. I was visiting family and wandered into a gallery I hadn't planned to. One piece stopped me — I don't remember which paintings were on either side of it. I left without buying. A month later, I was still thinking about it, so I flew back and bought it.

Then I met the artist. Then I met the artists he knew. That's really the whole origin story of this collection — one work, one conversation, and then another, and now, five years later, a body of work worth sharing.

I'm Chijioke Eze. My day job is building fintech across Africa — I'm the Chief Development Officer at FLEX, a Nigerian payments company. That work and this collection are the same story told two ways: what's happening on the ground in Nigeria right now, and who is making it.

Why "Hadar"

The gallery is named after Hadar, an archaeological site in Ethiopia — the place where Lucy, one of the oldest known hominid ancestors, was uncovered. It felt right. This collection is a kind of excavation too: contemporary African voices that deserve to be uncovered, held up, and looked at closely.

How I choose work

Two things. First, it has to move me — I don't buy on speculation or trend, and I don't buy work I couldn't live with. Second, the piece has to carry a real story: the artist's intent, the material, the moment it was made. If I can't tell you why a work exists, I don't want to sell it to you.

What Hadar is, and isn't

It isn't a warehouse of decorative pieces. It's a curated selection of contemporary African artists — most of them Nigerian, several of them people I know personally — whose work I've chosen with intention. Every piece here is one I've spent time with.

If something in the gallery speaks to you, reach out. I'd rather have a real conversation about a work than close a sale. Provenance, framing, shipping, and pricing — all of that gets covered in a direct conversation.

— Eze
Atlanta