Two Rwandan art paintings were sold at $2500 (Frw1.4 million) during the first African Regional Summit and Exhibition on Visual Art (ARESUVA) in Abuja, Nigeria.

The art paintings were from a Rwandan art galley, Ivuka Arts Studios.

The summit held mid September this year, was designed towards promoting visual arts as a strategy for achieving rapid economic development in the African region, as envisioned in New Partnership for African development (NEPAD).

The exhibition was a platform to open business opportunities in the visual arts industry and show case peculiarities in each of the participating African countries and forge a one-on-one profitable links between collectors and artists.

Collin Sekajugo, the Managing Director of Ivuka Art Studios, said the paintings depicted the current day-to-day life in Rwanda, which is still unknown to many people around the globe considering the country’s history.

He said the first painting that sold for $1500 portrayed hugging the day, reflecting togetherness and reconciliation that is being promoted among Rwandans today.

"The other painting portrayed the Rwandan essence, which was an abstract of the Rwandan lifestyle and was sold at $1000.”

Following discussions and presentations from different art scholars at the forum, Sekajugo said the forum also addressed fears of professional artists and other stakeholders in the aforementioned areas and deliberated extensively on the importance and centrality of the visual arts in African countries’ economies.

According to information from the forum brochures, the forum sought to encourage the private and public sectors development partnership to fund visual arts, for it is a major player in economic life of African region as it is in other developed countries.

The studio has previously exhibited at three events in three different African countries including, Zambia, South Africa, and Botswana since 2005. It had also participated in group exhibitions in Europe.

However, Sekajugo revealed that this was the studio’s first participation at a high level art summit and exhibition where selection of participants was based on artists’ reputation in their respective countries.

Sixteen countries were represented at the summit with one artist from each with two paintings.

The forum comes at a time Africa has taken a typically tenacious and distinctive approach to the development of art, culture and tourism sector gaining momentum.

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