RAW Material Company is a centre for art, knowledge and society. It is an initiative involved with curatorial practice, artistic education, residencies, knowledge production, and archiving of theory and criticism on art.

It works to foster appreciation and growth of artistic and intellectual creativity in Africa. The programme is trans-disciplinary and is equally informed by literature, film, architecture, politics, fashion, cuisine and diaspora.

RAW Material Company is made of:

RAW Base, a resource centre specialized in contemporary art,

RAW Académie, an experimental study programme for artistic thinking and production

Ker Issa, residencies and studios for artists, curators, authors and researchers.

RAW Material Company’s premises are located in Sicap Baobabs and Zone B. RAW Material Company Zone B is a former 1950s residential home of Modernist inspiration in a historic neighbourhood of Dakar. The renovation of this space is a departure point from which we wish to develop research and projects on the role of architecture and urban planning in shaping contemporary societal discourse in African cities.

A collaborative project between the Department of English Literary Studies and the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town, African Literary Cities: Hubs, Maps and Literary Urban Ecologies addresses the “absenting” of African literary cities –a complex engagement with cityness and literariness – in both globally authoritative cultural policy discourses and the emerging scholarly field of Literary Urban Studies. As a form of urbanity, the literary city can be considered a narrative that (re)produces itself in both material and imaginative forms and can thus not be read solely with one single disciplinary lens. This project therefore proposes the notion of “literary urban ecologies” to make sense of the complex entanglements and (re)productions of cityness and literature. We are not concerned with creating an authoritative definition of the African Literary City. Rather, we are interested in mapping how literary cityness is locally produced in the contexts of dynamic African cities that are constantly “ making connections of all kinds through their literary (re)presentation. To this end, we have engaged with different Literary Festivals on the continent, and engage in an ongoing project of mapping representations of African cityness in literary works through a crowd-sourced online map.

U.S. based ecological researcher and farmer Monai McCullough recently concluded a six-week residency at G.A.S. Foundation, based primarily at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikiṣẹ. During her time in residence, she focused on expanding her ongoing research project Trees of Nigeria, an archive that documents trees, explores their cultural and spiritual significance, and seeks to instil pride within their stewards. A central aspect of her research involved visiting agricultural institutions, participating in hands-on planting activities, and meeting with traditional herbalists to deepen her understanding of local plant knowledge and ecological practices.

On 5th June 2026, G.A.S. Lagos hosted The Archive is Only the First Sentence, an open studio and presentation of residency research by Yoma Emore. The session introduced the narrative and archival frameworks shaping her practice, alongside her ongoing project The Prince Who Never Was, which examines lineage and the early sixteenth-century Lusophone–Warri encounters.

In December 2025, G.A.S. Foundation, in partnership with the Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F.), announced the call for the fourth edition of the G.A.S. Fellowship Award, supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art. This year, the award offered multiple fully funded residencies, including opportunities for outstanding U.S. based artists and cultural practitioners to undertake residencies at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikiṣẹ.

Earlier this month, we welcomed Kim M. Reynolds, a U.S. writer, educator, maker and recipient of the G.A.S. Fellowship Award 2026, for an eight-week at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikiṣẹ. Her multidisciplinary practice spans research, literature, culinary arts, and food history, with a focus on pan-Africanism, ritual, social justice, and arts movements across the African continent and its diaspora. She is also the founder of Home Spice, a culinary project tracing the history of capsicum in Black cuisines through writing and cooking.

On May 30th, 2026 G.A.S. Lagos hosted Underwater Ave,  an evening bringing together works in progress by then residents Kush Badhwar, Okwei Odili, Oluwasemilore Delano, and Yoma Emore. As their residencies came to a close, the artists shared unfinished ideas, footage, fragments, prototypes, tests, and experiments developed during their time at G.A.S.

A defining gesture of In Minor Keys — the central exhibition of the 61st Biennale di Venezia curated by the late Koyo Kouoh — is the integration of six artist-led organisations who form its Schools. They function simultaneously as subject, methodology, and forms of knowledge production that resist market imperatives and national categorisation, privileging shared learning and collective sustainability. "Schools" is one of several loose compositional motifs Kouoh devised to structure the exhibition, alongside Shrines, Procession, and Rest. These motifs operate as tonal registers rather than categories, shaping the visitor's experience through shifts in rhythm, density, and attention.

G.A.S. Foundation is pleased to welcome Moses Hamborg, a Los Angeles-based painter and recipient of the G.A.S. Fellowship Award 2026, for an eight-week at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikiṣẹ. Working at the intersection of figurative painting and material research, Moses’ practice explores how identity, environment, and perception are shaped through both image-making and the substances that constitute it. His recent work extends beyond representation into an inquiry into pigment itself, positioning material as both medium and subject.

On May 29, 2026, G.A.S. Lagos hosted Herbal Music, a live musical performance by Okwei Odili and Afro-jazz guitarist Adedayo Allegro Michael Lopez, exploring organic Nigerian sound traditions. Okwei immersed herself in medicinal plant cultivation while exploring the relationship between music and agriculture. During this time, she recorded ambient farm sounds, experimented with plant-based instruments and natural resonators, and learned traditional Yoruba healing songs and chants.which she presented alongside older compositions. 

On May 22nd, G.A.S. Lagos hosted Șé òrûn jé ârâ – is the sky skin, a presentation of residency research and monoprinting workshop led by Oluwasemilore Delano. The premise of this event stemmed from the title, which operates as a statement rather than a question. It invited audience members to consider how we understand our bodies beyond ourselves, reflecting on what practices of touch and intimacy with skin might mean within a world shaped by difference.