Today we’d like to introduce you to Sia Alexander.
Hi Sia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started Pure Lagos as a one day pop-up at an incubator event in downtown Norfolk 4 years ago. With no capital, I managed to expand the business into 4 distinct locations within 2 years, due almost entirely to sales revenue.
After traveling all over the world via my work in the fashion industry, I was inspired to create Pure Lagos out of my love for Africa, art, and entrepreneurship. We curate handmade artisanal goods, fashion and original artwork from the African continent and exhibit these treasures in our galleries. We offer Afropolitan workshops, classes, and events to educate and inspire the local community. Pure Lagos African Art Gallery offers a healing sanctuary and garden in downtown Norfolk, VA. Healing others via nature, writing, African art, and organic food justice is central to the fulfillment of my purpose to heal and uplift humanity. I am a PhD candidate in Indigenous Community Psychology and also run Heal Love Now Farm as a non-profit venture to restore an appreciation for home grown food in the food desert of my historic black community. Sharing contemporary, original African art is a further step in my vision to heal the traumatic link between coastal west Africa and coastal Virginia through the sharing of art.
I met my business partner Chike Joseph Nwagbogu, who later became my husband, nearly 20 years ago. He is a pioneer of contemporary African art exhibition in Nigeria and I was greatly influenced by his curatorship. In fact, I was directly inspired by his gallery and boutique hotel where I lived and worked for almost a decade in Lagos. We met under the auspices of a mutual art loving community and he was fascinated my my newly published first book, I AM: You Power This Life. So much so that he invited me to record the audio version at his homegrown studio situated on his gallery grounds. I accepted and the rest was history. A multi year collaboration inside and led unexpectedly to my moving back to the U.S. and opening my first art gallery. He then joined me in America 2 years into my entrepreneurial journey, after proposing to me more times than I can count. Within a short time the joint venture we created, scaled the business to exponentially!
My Bio:
Sia Alexander is a mystic and healer who studied psychology, herbology and the transformative power of art during her world travels as a fashion model, curator and seeker. She holds two masters degrees and is currently working on her PhD. Her writing spans many genres including fiction, nonfiction, children’s and memoir. Currently the curator of Pure Lagos Art Gallery and the Founder of Heal Love Now, Sia loves to spark transformation as an Afropolitan creative, Depth Psychologist and Ayurvedic consultant who loves the sea ~
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Reaching our target market and those who are ideal clientele for our offering has been an ongoing challenge. We rely heavily on foot traffic and word of mouth referrals and would like to expand our influence and drive larger connections with art buyers. In order to do this we are building capital and influence to drive marketing/advertising and to support our artists’ collective on the African continent from whom we purchase all of our art inventory.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Pure Lagos Gallery?
Pure Lagos is an African Art and Fair Trade Artisanal goods boutique in Norfolk VA that curates fine art pieces by African artists. We curate African-inspired clothing, books, including some of your own, teas, salves, as well as all-natural foods sourced with love from around the world,
Pure Lagos offers contemporary African Art from the African Diaspora to serve and share with the Hampton Roads Community and beyond. Our team of two aims to uplift and heal our clientele and artists through the beauty of original art from the Continent.
Our clients are art buyers, art collectors, appreciators of African art. Pure Lagos offers additional services to the community along with our offering of contemporary paintings and sculptures.
We are an African art gallery that curates, exhibits and sells contemporary art from the continent of Africa to our customers and clients in the U.S. and abroad. We also offer a holistic Afropolitan experience whereby we share the dynamic culture of the African Diaspora with our community through food, music, artisanal goods, workshops, events, and classes.
We offer Igbo language and philosophy classes to a community made largely of descendants of enslaved Africans forcibly brought to coastal Virginia from Igbo and Yoruba lands. It is a wonderful full circle experience for participants who all are given an Nigerian name upon completion of the course! We also teach the local children visual and performing arts using lessons/inspiration from contemporary African artists’ works and styles. We offer culinary workshops in African cuisine and host monthly discussions and exhibitions in topics/subjects which center Black lives and traditions.
Our aim is to heal the legacy of the transatlantic trade in human beings through the making and sharing of liberatory art. We provide a haven for the local community to enjoy our extensive library, African art collection, children’s art workshops and African language/philosophy classes. We also have an organic urban garden open to the community for horticulture healing and free produce in the spirit of food justice and community health empowerment.
We work directly with African artisans/artists on the African continent and bring their goods to the U.S. market. In addition our non-profit wing was established to provide creative artistic expression outlets, events, residencies and opportunities for the local community; including our organic farm in an historic black neighborhood, which has been marginalized since just after the Civil War and is still crying out for development initiatives and economic/eco-sustainable endeavors.
Recently, we made a huge leap in selling two works in our collection from one of our top artists, El Anatsui, to an African art collector via Sothebys auction house last year. Subsequently, we were invited to showcase several of our artists’ works in a Disney + production called The Crossover Series for which we won an Emmy!
We also experienced a wonderful highlight during a Sotheby’s art auction where our artist’s work went for more than 3 times the list price, in the final moments of the sale. It was exhilarating to behold, as we had flown in from Virginia that day and caught traffic on the way to the upper west side location, delaying us. Running up 5th Avenue exasperated that we may miss the auction time, only to stumble in out of breath to the last few bids in the bidding war. We barely could catch our breath before we saw the final number and hammer price. We were flabbergasted and elated! As the sale had broken a major record for this artist’s works in that category, and aligned with an aim we had been diligently working towards to scale our efforts!
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
This is a favorite recent memory. I don’t really have a childhood memory to offer:
I was on a business trip in NYC last year finishing up an art sale with Sothebys Auction House. Nearly everything of value to the logistical operation of my business was in my wallet. Whilst on a wonderful nighttime joyride on a citibike through the theater district and uptown, my wallet flew out of the bicycle basket, unbeknownst to me. When we reached our hotel, I realized I didn’t have my wallet. My husband and I retraced our steps all around the city but with no luck returned, defeated. Back in the hotel suite I did a deep prayer and meditation on finding lost objects. From there onwards, I continued to reflect on the possibilities of a happy resolution despite the odds, yet was constantly challenged by the loss of valuable logistical requirements I desperately needed. After about two weeks, my dad called to say a package had arrived for me at my parent’s home. From NYC, he told me. I dropped everything and rushed over there and sure enough the manila envelope contained my now mythical wallet. It had found its way back to me! Thanks to Joseph Martinez, a doorman at the Beekman hotel who had witnessed my night cycle swoosh by him as my wallet soared out into the road. He included a lovely letter in the package explaining that it had taken him an extra bit of time to track down an address for me and he imagined I would finally get some relief upon receiving the correspondence. I was overwhelmed with glee like a little girl on Easter Sunday; and knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that kind angels do still exist and walk the earth every day!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.purelagos.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/pure_lagos?igshid=1dqffcck7jdvr
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/purelagos
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/in/sia-alexander-2392b92b
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/1cOy-dXDZrQ
- Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/pure-lagos-norfolk
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/shop/pure_lagos?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_aipsfshop_X96QH7PA8PG3Q8NH5TEV&language=en_US
