Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos

Name: Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos
Brand: Raknida
Price: 55.0 USD
Availability: InStock

Anthony Ezeokoye

Black and yellow illustration of Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos: rearing horse statues on the stand, a telecom mast, winged shapes in the sky and a seated robed figure with a staff in the foreground.

$55.00 – $125.00

Tafawa Balewa Square stands on the former Lagos Racecourse, where Nigeria marked its independence in 1960. Anth Ezeokoye draws it in black and yellow for his Made in Lagos series.

Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos is a Studio Edition: 20 museum-quality art prints in each size, each numbered in its white border. Every artwork comes with its Cultural Passport.

The Cultural Passport

Every order comes with the heritage documented.

Digital, emailed when your order ships: the work's story, the tradition it draws on and how it was made. 5 × 7 in (13 × 18 cm), ready to print and frame beside the work.

How it works →

Before it was a square it was a racecourse. Tafawa Balewa Square on Lagos Island began in the colonial era as the Lagos Racecourse, established in 1859. The horses never left: they still rear above the stand. In October 1960 this ground hosted the ceremony at which Nigeria became independent. It was later named for Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the country's first prime minister.

Anth Ezeokoye puts the horses at the centre of his Made in Lagos picture. It is drawn in black and yellow with vector lines and a sketched finish. A telecom mast rises behind them where the old city meets the new. Look to the bottom corner. A seated figure in a long robe, staff in hand, watches over the square like someone who has seen all of it. The series preserves the scenes that have made Lagos what it is today, and few hold more of the nation's memory.

Motifs in this work

The rearing horses: the racecourse the square once was

The telecom mast: the new city rising behind the old

The seated robed figure: a witness to the square's history

Edition: Edition of 20 in each size · 60 across all sizes. Further runs possible once a size sells out, each tagged (Run 2). Edition numbers count the works sold through Raknida; the artist may also sell their own editions of this work.
Numbering: Number, title and artist printed in the white border.
Printing: Museum-quality giclée with archival pigment inks on museum-grade cotton fine art paper.
Includes: Your numbered artwork and its Cultural Passport.

Size	Sheet	Image	Museum-Quality Print only	Framed	Available
S	8 × 12 in	6½ × 9¾ in	$55	+$65	20
M	16 × 24 in	14 × 21 in	$85	+$119	20
L	24 × 36 in	22 × 33 in	$125	+$179	20

The artist

Anthony Ezeokoye

Igbo · Missouri, USA · Origin: Nigeria · 19 works on Raknida

Anthony “Anth” Ezeokoye (b. 1989) is an international award-winning digital artist, trained architect, creative director, and creative technologist. His practice sits where cultural storytelling meets emerging media. A Nigerian based in St. Louis, with professional roots across Africa’s creative industries, Anth builds visual worlds across illustration, motion, extended reality, and artificial intelligence. He treats technology not as a novelty but as a tool for authorship, access, and cultural continuity.

Across series, collections, and commissions, Anth’s work explores how heritage, identity, and narratives are constructed. He often uses contemporary African visual language to question what we inherit, how we perform, and who we choose to become.

In the A Queen & More collection, he explores the many dimensions of womanhood through 12 character archetypes in a bold, contemporary palette. Layered elements honor choice, complexity, and self-definition. In the Mask Off collection, he positions African heritage as both inheritance and future legacy. Illustration, 3D digital production, and looping animation ask what remains when performative “masks” fall away, and how cultural values can be re-authored today. His calligraphic portrait series, The Autograph, fuses typography, symbolism, and precise craftsmanship, constructing faces from names, dates, quotes, and lived histories.

Anth’s wider career extends into building creative infrastructure. He is the founder of Raknida, an art-tech platform that widens access to cultural stories by underrepresented artists. Its growing suite of products and experiences spans discovery, collection, and display. He has presented and directed creative projects across cultural, art, and design festivals and public-facing contexts. His creative direction runs through two businesses: Insecta Studios, a creative services company in Lagos, Nigeria, and Raknida Inc. in St. Louis. Recognition includes Arch Grants, SOVAS Voice Arts Awards, One Voice Awards USA, and a Future Awards Africa nomination in Arts and Culture.