Bayo Hassan Bello is a West African artist, curator and filmmaker whose text-based and time-based works engage with indigenous practices and social imaginaries. His works have been selected and shown at major institutions including Africa Movie Academy Awards, Art X Lagos, Borna Soglo Gallery, Fondation Fiminco, Jameel Arts Centre, Sikka Art Fair, Venice Biennale, World Art Dubai, to name a few. His short film “Portrait of Princess Tutu, 2021” is inspired by paintings of the same name by artist Ben Enwonwu (1917 - 1994), one of the most influential African artists of the twentieth century. It is a 2021 Nominee for Best Short Film at Africa Movie Academy Awards and an official selection for Afrikana Independent Film Festival, Silicon Valley African Film Festival, Zózimo Bulbul Black Film Festival in 2022. In 2022, he curated the special projects at Art X Lagos, West Africa’s leading international art fair. It includes a group exhibition titled “What Shall We Name These Rivers” featuring works by Lulama Wolf, Thierry Oussou, Ibrahim Khatab, Sungi Mlengeya, Monica de Miranda. And solo presentations for multi-hyphenate artist Victor Ehikhamenor presenting his visual and sonic installation “Ulin-nóifo, The Lineage That Never Ends”, Senegalese-Moroccan artist Linda Dounia’s digital installation “Once Upon A Garden”; and British-Nigerian artist Ranti Bam’s performance titled “Sowing Seeds In Heartland”, which explored the symbolic connection between her clay hearths and the Baobab tree - spaces that Africans gather around to share stories, harness wisdom and seek spiritual and material sustenance.His ongoing series “babi and other stories” is selected for the 2023 Venice Biennale College Arte. He is currently collaborating with New Culture Studios Ibadan on an adaptation of Demas Nwoko’s 1977 dance play “Children of Paradise”. The adapted performance is part of a series of public art programs dedicated to the legacy of Demas Nwoko and pioneers of Nigeria’s modern art movements.He is founder of AJALA and EN PLEIN AIR, both culture production platforms focused on social impact. Since 2016, AJALA has produced impactful projects with artists and communities from the Global South. EN PLEIN AIR, an alternative platform for engaging with contemporary art in West Africa has organized residencies and screenings of short films and video works across West Africa, since April 2022.Websites: byajala.com, enpleinair.liveSocials: @byajala, @enpleinair.live