This thesis explores the market for contemporary African art in London from 1995 to 2005 using case examples of artists, museums, art festivals and fairs, auctions and galleries. The study is generally bracketed by two festivals, africa 95 and africa 05, touching also on events that transpired during the intervening decade. Many artists from Africa who were working, living or exhibiting in London during this time experienced degrees of marketable success as a result of their participation or relationship with actors involved in the marketplace and in private and public institutions. However, this was not the case for all connected with the two events. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the underlying network of market systems, in a particular place and time, for work by contemporary artists from Africa, in order to frame the various points of entry into the market and, by extension, the broadening of contemporary art historical canons

This thesis explores how the art world negotiates what contemporary African art means, in the context of the international contemporary art system and in relation to the histories of Western perspectives on Africa. Using conceptual and methodological approaches drawn from cultural geography, it examines the field of contemporary African art, foregrounding the terms of negotiation framing contested geographical imaginations and ideas of Africa. The research considers curatorial practices, exhibitions, art institutions, networks and the wider art infrastructure as an arena in which geographical concepts and categories are formulated, debated and contested in relation to contemporary African art. It draws on interviews with artists, curators, gallerists, collectors and scholars, as well as ethnographic fieldwork conducted in institutions and at art events, to unpick the idea of 'contemporary African art' as a working category and conceptual frame. It reveals tensions running through the field hinging on questions of categorisation, scale and location, the geographical dimensions and implications of which are currently under-explored. The conclusions argue for the importance of geographical awareness in debates around contemporary art from Africa and its shifting position internationally, particularly in the context of globalising trends in the art world and beyond, which engender complex geographies of mobility, identity, belonging and opportunity. The thesis also highlights the relevance of debates around contemporary African art for geographers, proposing new directions in research on art within cultural geography.