Art Fairs
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair 2026
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair | Booth #9
Lavett Ballard | Damilare Kanyinsola | Megan Lewis
price list | catalog |
DAMILARE JAMIU, A Piece of Peace, 2025, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 48″ x 36″
About the Artists
Lavett Ballard
Lavett Ballard (b. 1970, East Orange, NJ) anchors the presentation with richly layered portraits that fuse historical consciousness and decorative abstraction. Holding dual Bachelor’s degrees in Studio Art and Art History with a minor in Museum Studies from Rutgers University, and an MFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Ballard brings academic rigor and cultural sensitivity to her practice. Her compositions often incorporate wallpaper-like motifs, gilded surfaces, and symbolic patterning that reference African textiles while engaging Western portrait traditions. Ballard’s national recognition includes her commission by Time Magazine.
Damilare Jamiu Kanyinsola
Damilare Jamiu Kanyinsola (b. 1994, Lagos Island, Nigeria) grounds the presentation in lived African experience and philosophical reflection. Apprenticed early under Lagos-based artist Muyiwa Williams, Damilare developed a practice deeply informed by his environment and the realities of contemporary Nigeria. Self-described as an African Realist, he centers authentic African narratives through figurative painting that often includes animals—cats and dogs—as symbolic companions. His work reflects a meditative engagement with humanity, spirituality, and Black consciousness. Within the booth, Damilare’s paintings offer an intimate, grounded perspective on African identity, memory, and resilience.
Megan Lewis
Megan Lewis (b. 1989, Baltimore, MD) contributes a dynamic, painterly counterpoint through highly physical figurative works that pulse with movement and color. A graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design (BFA, Illustration, 2011), Lewis is both a painter and muralist, known for wielding a palette knife with decisive precision. Her figures are rendered in bold hues and geometric forms, often adorned with layered textiles that draw from African design traditions. Ankara fabrics—some acquired during her travels to Johannesburg, South Africa—are integrated directly into her paintings, collapsing boundaries between surface, pattern, and body.
On February 28, 2026 (2:00 – 4:00 pm), Galerie Myrtis will host Art and Legacy, an intimate panel discussion exploring art collecting as an intergenerational practice. The panel features members of Dr. Myrtis Bedolla’s family—April Bedolla, Christopher Bedolla, Alex Hyman, and Jenell Steele—who will reflect on how Dr. Bedolla’s role as both matriarch and gallerist shaped the family’s shared passion for collecting. Moderated by Ky Vassor, Assistant Director, the conversation examines collecting as an act of preservation, care, and cultural continuity.
A special anniversary edition of Tea with Myrtis, Changamiré: A Tribute to Billie Holiday, will take place on Saturday, March 14, 2026, from 2:00 to 5:00 pm. This curated listening salon features an intimate dialogue between acclaimed jazz vocalist Changamiré and Dr. Myrtis Bedolla, accompanied by vinyl selections from Seeking Billie: The Unusual Tribute to Billie Holiday. The program will also premiere Project 44, a new video series that connects Billie Holiday’s enduring legacy to the lived experiences of contemporary Black women. The LP will be available for purchase during the event.
James Seward was born in El Paso, Texas in 1979. He received his B.F.A at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has exhibited in many galleries and several museums throughout the United States; His painting My Father in The Living Room of Our 10th House was accepted into the first Boochever Portrait Competition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. In 2021, he was the recipient of the Peter S Reed Foundation grant. In 2024 he had a solo exhibition Embrace: Cinematic Moments at the Hudson River Museum. His work has been published in the LA Times, on the cover of Newsweek Magazine, Ritz Carlton Magazine, New American Paintings, and American Art Collector. He worked for several years as an assistant painter for the internationally renowned artist Jeff Koons. James currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
James Leroy Seward is an American painter whose practice moves fluently between the intimacy of portraiture and the charged atmosphere of staged, cinematic encounter. Trained in illustration at Savannah College of Art and Design (BFA, 1998–2002) and shaped by formative studio experience as an assistant painter at Jeff Koons Studio (2005–2013), Seward brings rigorous craft to images that feel simultaneously contemporary and timeless. 
Felandus Thames, She Did What She Could, 2025
Felandus Thames, Minute by Minute, 2024