Aderenle Sonariwo’s story is one of courage to pursue one’s passion without the fear of failure. Her passion and love for art was the driving force behind her quitting a well-paid job as an auditor with one of the world’s best accounting firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in a clime where people hardly leave their paid jobs.
Thereafter, she founded Rele Art Gallery, a Lagos-based art gallery that uses art as a tool to contribute to societal discourse. As an art entrepreneur, she has worked with reputable companies such as Samsung Mobile, Laurent Perrier, The Sterling Bank, Diamond Bank, and Hugo Boss.
In spite of the art industry’s almost moribund status in Nigeria, Aderenle’s courage to pursue her dream, using art as an outlet of her expression to the outside world, has paid off as she morphs into an award-winning gallerist and art curator.
She won ‘The Future Awards Africa Prize For Arts & Culture’ in 2016. Though her plan to establish the first exclusively arts university in Nigeria in 2011 hasn’t succeeded yet, this young lady continues to soar on, fearlessly.
