Tiwani Contemporary , one of the few highly visible European galleries with a stated focus on the African diaspora, will close after 15 years, bringing to an end an ambitious run that helped elevate artists such as Joy Labinjo and Emma Prempeh to star status. It is merely the latest gallery in a succession of commercial art spaces to shutter in the past few years, a trend that has aroused anxiety about the state of the market from some observers. Yet most of those shuttered spaces have been based in New York; Tiwani Contemporary, by contrast, is based in London. Related Articles The gallery was founded by Maria Varnava in 2011, and has operated a space in Lagos alongside its London base since 2022. Tiwani Contemporary relocated its current London headquarters to Mayfair, the city’s central district for blue-chip galleries, in 2023. In a statement posted to Instagram, Varnava attributed the gallery’s closure to the conditions of the market.…